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One of our candidates this election season is running on the mantra ‘Make America Great Again.’ I personally think America has been pretty darn great for a long time. Sure, we’ve had our ups and downs. It’s been a march to a slow beat for racial, gender and sexual equality, but we’re getting there. Democracy isn’t meant for radical change. It’s a hard road. The merging of disparate ideas and ideologies of over 300 million people can’t be easy.
But it also shouldn’t be this hard. Or this bloody.
That same candidate (full disclosure: I’m not voting for him) was asked to recall a time when America WAS great. His answer was typical and myopic and trite. Again, I think America has been pretty darn great all along, but I can give you a very specific answer to when America showed its greatness to all the world.
September 11, 2001.
As with everyone else, that day for me started out like any other day. I heard about the first plane from Melissa, my then-girlfriend-now-wife while I was walking to work.
“A plane hit the World Trade Center!”
My first thought was a little prop plane, a four-seater, something like that. I quickened my pace and joined Melissa and the rest of our co-workers in the bowels of our company, watching the only monitor in the building wired for cable. It was no prop plane; that was obvious from the hole in the side of the building and the smoke billowing skyward.
My workday wouldn’t rest, so I settled into my desk and got started. Some time went by and Melissa burst through the door. “Another plane hit the other tower!”
I remember the thirty or so of us crowded around the monitor, sitting on the floor and leaning wherever we could find space, in solemn silence. An occasional “my God” or “holy shit.” Some talk of us being attacked. The Pentagon. Pennsylvania. Then the first Tower fell and the shrieks and the sobbing began. The next few hours were a blur, lived through communal tears.
One of the icons of my youth, Fred Rogers, once said that when you’re afraid, look for the helpers. Well, on September 11, there were helpers. First responders, firemen, police, and paramedics ran INTO the buildings. They ascended the stairs TOWARDS the flames. They saved countless lives with courageous disregard for their own.
And many… no MOST… were lost.
Their bravery in the face of unspeakable horror was the first sign of American Greatness.
Like the rest of the country, I was riveted to my television for the rest of the days to follow, watching an endless stream of stories of the fallen and the missing, needing the moments of survival and heroism to assuage the hurt:
• The other first responders from neighboring towns and states descending on New York to help.
• The workers at Ground Zero digging and hoping to find more survivors, with little regard for their own health.
• The tributes and moments of silence as the days and weeks moved on.
Mostly I remember the feelings of unity. We hurt TOGETHER. We mourned TOGETHER. And eventually, we moved on. TOGETHER.
More American Greatness.
In the subsequent years, those feelings of unity were perverted into the war in Iraq. The military industrial complex used our grief as a profit center that’s been ringing the cash register for them for fifteen years. We’ve allowed ourselves to be divided by the powers that be. That feeling of TOGETHER has been replaced by Us versus Them and Mine versus Yours.
And yet, more stories of the heroes of September 11 continued to trickle out during the anniversaries and remembrances commemorating that fateful day. The story of Welles Crowther, the Man with the Red Bandana, which I heard years after the fact, still brings me to tears, with sadness for his family and those he left behind. But it also fills me with PRIDE, for his selflessness and bravery in the face of impending doom.
Welles’ courage serves as a beacon for me on this fifteenth anniversary, to fight the sadness, fight the tears, and remember the UNITY and TOGETHERNESS that rose in the aftermath of the biggest milestone event of my lifetime.
WE got knocked down. But WE got back up.
That is American Greatness.
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Photo: GettyImage
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You now Toar, back when I was 17 I thought like this. Our slogan was America. Love it or leave it. I was ready to go to Nam to support it. My father pulled me aside and said I was young and stupid, but he understood. For Christ’s sake I was 17. He had an apt ready in Canada for me, to study there, rather than here. My father was military. He saw what was going down. He knew the lies that were being promulgated. He wanted no part for me of that. And I argued with him. So he… Read more »
Thanks,Toar, for taking the time to inspire us.
Heartwarming, Tor. Thank you for taking the time to inspire us.
Heartwarming my ass. Nice sentiment but it’s obvious you’ve not thought this through. Look around. See the truth. You simply can’t deny what you see. Don’t get me wrong. Trump is a neophyte. He hasn’t yet run into the buzz saw. The name calling from the left is now so apparent where it’s coming from its just so stupid. But for God’s sake, open your eyes, and see what’s going on, then comment on how freaking heartwarming this is.
I agree that we are a great nation. However, the whole world has to be great for everyone to be really great.
So true. Greatness cannot be achieved by some narcissistic demagogue, but lies in the hands of people like you who will raise the Kadens and Zanders of the world with a commitment to unity and togetherness with their fellow man. Love you.
And who would be that narcissistic demagogue? . I got an idea, but tell me so I’m sure. A narcissistic demagogue was already elected twice, that set up 2007. Yep. Bill Clinton. You think it’s NOT in the family? . It is in spades. Hopefully you don’t want another.
BTW. Sorry for typos. Stupid auto correct shouldn’t be used when angry about how all this is going down.
It is true that America is still great. We’ve proved that that day, haiti, the tsunami , ww1 and 2 and many other examples. However. The other side of the story simply doesn’t want to speak about it nor hear the truth. We have been under literal attack from within for at least the last 8 years. Actually it goes back to the 60s but for this purpose it will suffice that this is the culmination of the full out press. You know what and whom I’m talking about. Obama was chosen as all the right things started coming together.… Read more »
I would love your reply toar. Anybody really. Dispute my points? . Go after them. But as a normal American. I’m tired of the left bullshit that comes right out of Saul. Do y’all know how he ended up in Carmel at the end? . Certainly not impoverished fighter of the poor. You guys really have no clue as to what’s going down. Sounds nice but truly clueless as a stump.
Yes it is true that that day we showed how truly great we are. And we still have it in us. In us all. But what literally ghashas bee