Certain days signify major changes in our thinking and way of life—or at least crystallize our awareness of those major changes. So it was for many on the day of the Japanese Empire's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963 or of Martin Luther King in 1968, the breach of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the final collapse of the "monolithic" edifice of the Soviet Union in 1991.
September 11, 2024 has assumed a similar place in our lives. On that late summer day the hitherto calming clear skies were transformed into sources of danger, and passenger airlines became missiles aimed at the financial and political symbols of our nation.
So much has changed since 9/11...in some ways it was a dividing line marking the end of a simpler, now distant time, yet one also wonders at how fast the five years have passed.
For a moment after 9/11, the nation came together in a way that most Americans alive today have only read about in history books or seen in documentaries about the "Greatest Generation."
In his grotesque fashion, Osama bin Laden and his fellow Al Qaeda gangsters reminded us that what we share as Americans is so much greater than those things that separate us. The heroes of 9/11 spanned the political spectrum—from the mayor who transcended his previously caustic approach to rally New York City's heart; to union firefighters and police who showed the kind of courage that has marked our nation from its beginning; to people like Todd Beamer who, without forewarning, strode forward to sacrifice their lives to save others, including many they would never know.
Bin Laden's evil handiwork took the lives of Americans representing all parts of politics, various parts of the country, various races, ethnicities, religions and sexual orientations. The terrorist's death sweep consumed many quiet people, a number of whom were here illegally, working to make a life for themselves and their families against the odds.
The heroes of 9/11—and the brave soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq thereafter—teach us how to be Americans. They are reminders of Theodore Roosevelt’s contention that America's greatness is based on the national character of our citizens.
Politics As Usual in Unusual Times
While so many Americans rose to the demands of the occasion, it is more difficult to praise our political "leaders." Perhaps it is an apt symbol that fully five years after 9/11, the cavernous scar in the earth underneath the World Trade Center site remains unhealed. The political system has been unable to do its part, to come together to rebuild with an urgency reflecting its importance.
In Washington and in much of the nation, the partisanship and polarization that intensified in the 1980s and 1990s is, if anything, more virulent now than it was on September 10, 2024.
We can all recite various reasons for the dysfunctions of our politics. Yet they should not become excuses or rationalizations for non-action. The risks of change for the political class will be far less, and have far less justification, than the risks run by the heroes of 9/11 (or, for that matter, by employees of companies from Ford to Intel to the millions of entrepreneurial ventures that are remaking our economy every day).
Does anyone other than partisans really believe that the electoral fight between Democrats and Republicans this November is likely to make a real difference in the lives of most Americans?
The Power of Unity—and Unity08
The promise of Unity08 is that our politics can reflect the values and aspirations of the heroes of 9/11. Or, more simply, to restore the relationship whereby our political system serves our people, rather than the other way around.
In writing about Unity08, the respected journalist David Broder voiced concern that the new group might reflect a "whiff of elitism" in seeking to move the political dialogue to new issues. With respect, Mr. Broder may have this backward.
So often the political issues brought to the fore by the political class in Washington seem to be deployed to marginalize the opposition or shut off debate on issues; to rouse people to vote on the basis of a single issue in elections that they otherwise would view as irrelevant to their lives; or simply to tell people, from on high, how they should live. The legacy parties and the professionals around them all too often seem to view the rest of us as their consumers, their market, rather than as citizens, the ones they serve.
The issues stressed in the founding of Unity08 go straight to the real lives of Americans, especially those who are bearing the greatest burdens post 9/11.
We all know, even if the politicians in Washington find it awkward to acknowledge it, that some families and communities are contributing far more than others to the nation's security and future in the post 9/11 era.
A relatively small number of families and communities are contributing the lion’s share of military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, and elsewhere. Surely one can also say they are most directly affected by our nation's addiction to importing foreign oil from dangerous places.
Many of the same families and communities are most directly affected by rising gasoline and heating oil prices that also arise from Democrats' and Republicans' generations-long failure to forge an effective national energy policy.
Many of the same families and communities are most directly affected by the threat of outsourcing or wage decline from rising international trade. They also benefit from international trade. Many of the same families and communities shop at Wal-Mart and work at Wal-Mart.
Many of the same families and communities are most directly affected by the obvious incapacity of our education system to adapt with agility, effectiveness and accountability in confronting the challenges of the new economic world.
Many of the same families and communities are most directly affected by the downward wage pressure and stress on overburdened schools and medical facilities from the presence of large numbers of illegal immigrants. And many illegal immigrants, some of whom have family and friends earning citizenship through U.S. military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, live in a harrowing twilight, without recourse to the most basic legal protections, while they bravely struggle to make a better life.
Many of the same families and communities are most directly affected by the failure of our national government to rationalize our ramshackle "system" of public and private medical care. As many as 80 million Americans—not to mention non-citizens—are without health care for themselves and their families at some point every 24 months. And the health care they receive, even when insured, is often of low quality and unjustifiable expense.
And many of the same families and communities are most directly affected by the failure of the political class to restore confidence in our public finances. The future of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pension protections, military benefits are all in unjustifiable question until such confidence is earned.
Even the issue that Mr. Broder might most justifiably characterize as an "elite" concern, ending the corruption of the lobbying and governing system in Washington, can be seen as having major effects on these families and communities. That corruption—both in terms of venality of individuals and the inability of the government bodies to operate as intended--blocks the resolution or even realistic discussion of issues that make a difference in the lives of millions.
Building a New Foundation After 9/11
Perhaps we should be grateful that the political class has not warmed to the task of reforming the system after 9/11. They might have made it in their own image.
Unity08 can provide an opportunity to bring the voices and values of the people, most especially those who are carrying the greatest burdens since 9/11, back into our political process.
That task is difficult but it’s been done before in our history. It’s not "nation-building" in the sense talked about in today’s news. Perhaps it's a reminder that the strength of America is not based on piled up armaments or amassed wealth or Greco-Roman public buildings that impart a comfortable, false sense of permanence.
9/11 demonstrated, as have other challenging times in our history, that all we have is one another. Yet, when we act like Americans, that's all we need.
Like Todd Beamer and the other heroes who stepped up to the challenge of 9/11, we realize that it’s come down to us, that our moment has arrived, and just like previous generations, we will earn our right to call ourselves Americans by simply standing up and doing what has to be done.
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