A Day of Service and Remembrance

A Day of Service and Remembrance

Eight years ago yesterday, the ringing phone startled me out of sleep. A friend, babbling something about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center, urging me to turn on the news. I believe I protested, asked if she was sure, confused thoughts about the H.G. Wells, “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast that panicked the credulous into believing we’d been invaded by Martians running through my mind.

What a hideous way to come fully awake, watching the footage of that horrible event, and then realizing as the second plane struck that it wasn’t a terrible accident but a purposeful, evil, cowardly attack.

Americans rediscovered their Unity in the aftermath of that attack. The Stars and Stripes flew off store shelves to fly on porches, in windows, on car antennas. In many neighborhoods, the home without a flag was the anomaly. Political bickering was set aside as we mourned our dead and comforted their survivors.

Of course, the Unity was fleeting. Before the last corpse was dug out of the rubble, those whose default position is the assumption of American guilt and responsibility began attempting to shift the blame from the terrorists to our own county’s actions. We were to understand the grievances these people had against us, we must examine the actions of our country in the Middle East. Surely the sort of anger and hatred that could drive men to commit terrorist attacks must be rooted in unjust interference in the affairs of other countries. American policies were to blame.

Americans are busy people. We have jobs and families, friends and hobbies. And like people everywhere, we get involved in life and time heals our wounds. The first or second or even third anniversary of that deadly attack, we made a point of attending a memorial ceremony, or re-watching some of the news coverage, of talking to friends and family about where we were when we heard. But it’s been 8 years. The flags we rushed to buy on 9/12/2001 became old and frayed and each year, fewer of us bought replacements. It isn’t of course, that we are less American, or aren’t as patriotic. It’s just that maintaining that level of active pride and defiance takes energy, and we have so many demands on our energy.

But the people who hold that default position of American guilt have not given up, and this brings me to President Barack Obama’s decree of a “Day of Service and Remembrance.”

The phrase bothered me the first time I heard it, but I wasn’t clear on why it did. Oh sure, I get sick of politicians harping on how the people they are meant to serve should do the serving. These people are elected to work for us, not be our parents.
I get tired of the endless public “service” announcements that urge us to “get involved”, “give back to the community” or “donate” this or that. I always wonder how much more good would be done the cause in question if the time, money and energy put into nagging others to “serve” were put into that cause in the first place.

But, my feeling about the, “Day of Service and Remembrance” was of a different nature, it wasn’t irritation, it was unease. Recognizing this brought understanding.

People who hold the default position I have referred to are made uneasy by displays of patriotism and American Unity. The proliferation of flags in the aftermath of 9/11/2001 made them uneasy. They were made uneasy by the image of an America righteously indignant and angry over an unjustifiable and murderous sneak attack on our citizens. They are more comfortable with the image of America they’ve tried so hard to create. America as an imperialistic, greedy, thieving bully. An America that is selfish, uncaring. An America that doesn’t share enough, that doesn’t do enough to help the needy, the minority groups, the Oppressed.

President Obama, in decreeing his, “Day of Service and Remembrance” has exposed himself as one of those who hold that default position of American guilt. Placing “service” before “remembrance” was not done without intent. He is purposely trying to shift the emphasis from what was done to us to what we don’t do for others. In exhorting Americans to “serve” he reinforces the idea that we don’t serve enough. Remembering what was done to us stirs our patriotism and pride, and it is more difficult to manipulate a proud and patriotic people with guilt and shame.

Rendering some type of related service in memory of a group or individual is a time-honored tradition for many people. We serve the poor in shelters on Thanksgiving, we spruce up military cemeteries on Memorial day, we donate time or money to a departed loved one’s favorite charity.

But how does painting a Habitat house, picking up trash, or running a canned food drive relate to the murder of thousands of innocent Americans by crazed religious fanatics? To be sure, there are many groups of Americans who have tried to relate the service to the day by organizing to stuff packages for troops overseas, fighting to prevent future attacks. But the President himself chose painting a room in a Habitat house as the example he set. Service to the community, not to our protectors.

The message of decreeing a, “Day of Service and Remembrance” on 9/11 is a subtle return to the American Guilt and Responsibility default position. The message on 9/12/2001 was that we were too greedy, too selfish, we should give more, do more, serve more so that “the world” would like us. Really, we brought the hatred and vitriol on ourselves because "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,"

Don’t get angry at the memory of people having to decide between death in a fiery inferno or on a sidewalk thirty stories below, pick up some trash. Don’t engage in useless acts of patriotism, feed some homeless people. Do a little of the service you should have been doing all along, you selfish, guilty American. The appropriate way to remember 9/11 is to atone for the American culture of selfishness and greed that brought about the violent attacks in the first place.

We must never forget the 9/11 attacks. We must never forget that a politician’s stock in trade is the art of manipulation. We must never forget that to a politician, every crisis is an opportunity and every tragedy is potentially of use. We must cultivate the habit of looking not at the actions and words of a politician, but at the motive and agenda behind those actions and words. A politician who has been successful enough to reach the highest office in the land should be scrutinized with the intensity commensurate with that success.

Americans are a generous, caring people. America has done more for the poor, the oppressed, the weak and even it’s own enemies than any country the world has ever known. We mustn’t allow those who assume American guilt and responsibility as their default position to make it ours.