Today is September 11, and as a nation, we are remembering those lost on 9/11/2001 in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. There is nothing funny about that event, and I am certainly not one to intrude on the national outpouring of grief. That was a day in which our national consciousness was altered and we were changed forever, and it is appropriate to remember and recognize it.
Oddly enough, it seems that every generation has their day. For my son and daughter, surely 9/11 will be that moment they will never forget, when their world shifted, and they lost their innocence. They were both in school, and each of them remembers the events of the day in vivid detail.
Adam, in high school at the time, recalls watching on television in his classrooms through the day. The media, as bewildered and unprepared as the rest of the nation, tried to make sense of it all by replaying the scene over and over, talking endlessly about what happened and what was going to come next. The adults in his own personal world struggled to come to grips with what it meant as well. We all looked over our shoulders that day, wondering where the next attack would come from, and if we were all as vulnerable as we felt.
My little girl asked me that day if they were going to come to Kansas City and crash into our house, because for her, that was what she found most frightening. She wanted to know she was safe, and for the first time in her life, I couldn't assure her the way I normally would that all would be well. I was glad, at that moment, to live in the heartland, flyover country. I told her if we were going to be safe anywhere, it would be in the Midwest, because even our own countrymen couldn't seem to locate us. It made her feel better, but as a parent, that was small consolation.
On a personal note, I feel sympathy for my brother and his lovely bride, because they were married on September 11, 1998, ten years ago today. While, as he once rightly told me, they had the day first, and it surely is a day to honor because he and his wife found their soul mates, it is still a little hard to go out and celebrate while everyone else is mourning the destruction of the Twin Towers and the loss of life that occurred because of it.
For my own generation, I think the assassination of John F. Kennedy was probably that redefining moment. Although I was only three at the time, (I am a "barely boomer," sort of a Boom-X, really,) for the kids who were a little older, and certainly for the adults, I know it was one of those times that they look back and remember exactly where they were when they heard the news. The world was shocked and mourned with us, and we still remember that day each year, because it changed the way we understood the world, and perhaps, the way world understood us, as well.
Ironically, we have a personal connection with that day, too. My mother was born on November 22, 1926. So every year, when her birthday comes around, she gets to wake up to a reminder that this is a day for the nation to be somber and remember the dark side of human nature. And happy birthday to you. [Sometimes her birthday falls on Thanksgiving, so then she gets completely eclipsed. It's a good thing she's a Minnesota Lutheran, thus can just accept it as her cross to bear.]
Speaking of my mother, for her generation, the watershed moment of change was, of course, December 7, 1942, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was dragged, kicking and resisting, into World War II. They say history is written by the winner, which is, of course, strictly speaking, quite true. One of the problems with that is the loss of perspective, because it is presented as a sure thing. But the outcome, while always believed in, was not assured, and the struggle was desperate and genuine.
That day of infamy is gradually fading from our collective consciousness, as those who lived through it, and were changed by it, pass away from this earth. But it was truly an event that changed the course of the world, and for those who were a part of it, it changed them. And so we have all been changed.
For my grandparents, the obvious life shattering event was the Great Depression. Even the very wealthiest Americans were not sheltered from the events of that time, as the country went suddenly from boom to bust, almost overnight.
My own relatives, farmers all, were more fortunate than some, perhaps, because they had the opportunity to live off their own land. Although there were many hardships, don't even get me started on rumagrout, my mother had food on her table every day, and a roof that had been over her family's heads for three generations. For those in the city, soup lines and families living in desperate straights were all too common. The hardships were in plain sight, shared by most, and it changed how the nation viewed those less fortunate.
Those times were the root of programs that continue to lift families from the depths of poverty and homelessness even today. No matter what you may feel about welfare and social security and all the other social programs, we as a nation are undeniably better for showing our concern for, and sharing our national wealth with, those who have fallen off the edge.
It is ironic, I think, that we as a country are at our best when we are at our most vulnerable. It is in those times that our true national character emerges, and the spirit that created this nation is most visible.
We are, on the surface of things, a fractured, contentious group, unable to see any other point of view, demanding, greedy, and in election season, unreasonable and downright hateful to others whose opinions do not mirror our own. But underneath the superficial flaws there lies great compassion and strength, a dedication to justice and freedom, not only for ourselves, but for all people.
That is what makes me proud to be an American today and every day. I have never doubted for a single moment that we, as a nation and as individuals, will rise to any occasion, will make any sacrifice, that is necessary to preserve not only our freedom and our rights, but those of the very people with whom we disagree.
Although it scares the enemies of this great nation, we continue, each new day, to embody the final words of the Declaration of Independence, which read:
"We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
