Can I kick it? No, you can't.

A Defining Moment

I was watching The Office on television, when a commercial came on for an upcoming episode of The 700 Club. I began vigorously rolling my eyes, but before they completely dislodged themselves from their sockets, I couldn't help but notice that the upcoming episode was going to be about 9/11.

"Damn," I thought, "it's coming up on ten years."

Before I could slip into a proper state of melancholy, I heard the voiceover guy read that the attacks were "a defining moment for the US." That jolted me out of my Atheist's Prayer For The Death of Pat Robertson, and got me thinking.

Were the attacks ten years ago a defining moment for the United States? I honestly don't think so.

I think of defining moments in terms of the Civil War, the signing of The Declaration of Independence, or the moon landing in 1969. Events where the nation looked down the road into the future, asked itself whether or not it was up to the task of becoming more than it was, and then began the hard work of making it happen.

9/11? With no disrespect to the dead and their families, I don't feel like it measures up in terms of what it had to necessarily mean to America.

The closest comparison would be Pearl Harbor. When Japan attacked Hawaii, FDR declared that we were no longer sitting on the sidelines, it was time for the US to stop being a provincial backwater, and to either assume its destiny as a world leader, or perish in the attempt. My reading of history tells me that Roosevelt was a great leader at a time we needed one. But even without that, Americans knew what was going to be necessary, that the cost would be appalling, and your grandparents and great-grandparents created the arsenal of democracy, and began giving their lives by the thousands in Africa, Europe and Asia.

Pearl Harbor was not a defining moment. The selfless response of an entire nation was the defining moment. There was no other choice to be made.

In the case of 9/11, the attacks were not a defining moment. Instead, we stared at the moment, had a collective freakout, looked to the president for leadership, were told to go shopping, and just went downhill from there. And this isn't even about Bush, I'm pretty sure any of the weasels in office from LBJ on would have blown it.

This country has chosen to be defined by 9/11, instead of the event choosing our destiny for us.

We are now victims. We aren't simply the wronged, out for focused payback, we are a gigantic angry infant, lashing out at anyone and everyone who doesn't worship art the altar of American exceptionalism. Muslims? Europeans? Chinese? They're all against us, probably socialist, and definitely not Christian! We have been attacked (for some reason!), and it was because they hate our freedom, our iPods and our Jesus.

We had choices on September 12th, 2001. We could have taken effective, highly focused military action in specific places. We could have tried to act like adults who live in a scary world, and sorted out what the best short and long-term responses would have been. There were choices that could have been made that would have made the country and the world a better place for the next hundred years.

Alas, no.

I don't think 9/11 was a defining moment. It did not make plain for us what to do next. No, 9/11 was an illuminating moment, one which shined a harsh light on how truly small we have become since World War II. Walt Kelly called it 40 years ago:

A very good friend of the family died today, and her name was Cherie. She was a good person, very selfless, and was the type of person who would give you the last bit of food she had if you were hungry. She did not have an easy life, and like most of us, often made her life harder by her own decisions.

Cherie was not very old, but she had diabetes, and some other medical problems, and I'm sure it will be revealed that these contributed to her all-too-early death. In July, she had an operation to relieve her of some of her terrible pain she had experienced for years, and it seemed to have worked, as she had a lot less pain once she had begun to recover from the surgery. The fact that she could have had this procedure done years ago but for bureaucratic red tape is something that I will not forgive. She could have had pain-free years instead of mere weeks at the end of her life, but I'm sure someone got themselves a bonus out of the repeated denials of service.

Cherie had, in the past two weeks, sold off a large amount of her own possessions, as she had decided to move into a shelter rather than continue to pay rent on the place she lived in. I had made the offer to her to move in where I live for as long as she wanted, but she wouldn't have it that way, even though I know she'd have insisted I take her up on the same offer if the situation was reversed. She was stubborn, but she invariably did what she felt was right, and that was always what was best for others.

Fortunately, I got to see her only yesterday. I didn't say goodbye with any more emphasis than I normally did. I knew she was tired from selling all of her stuff, and I think she was going to get to bed after that. From what I can infer, she either died late last night or this morning, and even though she was alone when she died, she was the solitary type, mostly. She was probably happy to have the peace and quiet at the time.

I'm going to miss her a lot, for the reasons I've mentioned, and because of the fact that even though she wasn't naive, she was never cynical. I can't relate to it, but I can appreciate it, and I did.

Cherie, you will be missed. I don't really believe in an afterlife, but at times like this, I hope there is something nice waiting for you. Maybe being out of pain is enough, but you deserve more. Rest in peace.

Monday, August 01, 2011

Sunday, September 02, 2007