Today, I am reminded of the glorious gift that can come from our shared humanity, experienced not just here in the United States, but from around the world on September 12, 2001. As we came to grips with the death toll from the day before – we also came together to mourn, comfort, and support.
September 12th would literally become the first day of the rest of our lives when new standards of normality would arise, particularly regarding how we travel, and the term “see something, say something” became a ubiquitous watch phrase.
Living in Alexandria, Virginia, just miles from the Pentagon – I remember firefighters standing on street corners with their fire boots seeking donations for their fallen comrades, backing up traffic as everyone stopped and happily, eagerly, yearningly emptied wallets of every dollar bill we had, and then went thru the ATM drive-thru just to come back and do it all over again because we all had this massive need to do “something.”
Stores immediately sold out of American flags of all sizes, and if you hadn’t known what had happened – you would have sworn it was the 4th of July as every house seemed to be flying the Flag, including mine.
However, it wasn’t just here, as people around the world joined in the need to do something. Queen Elizabeth II ordered our National Anthem played at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace with both Americans and Brits singing together, seeking to find comfort through raised notes of song. The Maasai people offered America 14 of their cows in effort to give something of themselves to those who had suffered loss. There was the famous “Bucket Brigade” of average New Yorkers, passing buckets of debris out of Ground Zero that lasted for days, and who can forget the compassion of the residents of Gander, Newfoundland, who took in the stranded “plane people,” a story beautifully retold in the Broadway musical “Come From Away.”
People were just kinder to each other. We smiled in the grocery store, let the other car go before us in traffic – the little things that seemed to bring us together as a country, because we were all in this together. Our gratitude for merely being alive was tempered by the somber certainty of the justice we knew that lay ahead and further sacrifices that would have to be made.
The courage and kindness shown on September 12th, 2001 and the days and weeks that would follow, from family and friends, neighbors and even complete strangers reflected the true spirit that Americans deep down have always had or did have.
I’m struck on this day thinking how far we have come and how far as a nation we have fallen in the last few years. The same neighbors and strangers who hugged and reminded each other “we’ll be okay,” twenty-two years ago, today don’t speak or even make eye contact. The negativity of our political discourse combined by the atrophy of our social skills during the pandemic has created a perfect storm of separation, apathy, and antagonism that has me questioning if the feelings of September 12th will ever again be possible.
On December 8, 1941, our nation united in war against a threat to humanity; on September 12, 2001 – our nation united in a show of our humanity, and yet today, September 12, 2023, I question where that humanity is anymore.
This is one of the reasons I am drawn to protocol and why when I’m at an event, if I see a flag out of place or an issue with etiquette, I’ll quietly and respectfully offer my assistance and guidance. Not because I want to call them out for a mistake, but because it is through protocol and etiquette that we can find a platform on which parity can still exist.
It shouldn’t take a September 11th to get us a September 12th. Sadly, it seems that our human nature now requires an external calamity or a shared disaster to bind us together to advance our common survival. During the holidays, we often say we wish the spirit of the season could pervade the entire year, and not be confined to a shortened season. So too should our shared sense of community. It should not be contingent on a day of tragedy but rather a commitment to bind us together and move forward, in the great tradition of the American experience – E Pluribus Unum.
Finally, I’m recalling the lyrics from the closing song of “Come From Away,” for on September 12
[We] are here,
At the start of a moment
On the edge of the world where the river meets the sea
Here on the edge of the Atlantic
On an island in between there and here
[Today] we honor what was lost,
But we also commemorate what we found.
What unites us will always be greater than what divides us if we are only willing to do so. May the glorious spirit and light of our collective humanity shared on September 12 always overshadow the darkness of September 11th.
Photo: Getty Images, taken September 12, 2001.
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