Pop quiz, hotshots: What day is today? How many of you woke up this morning and thought of where you were exactly two years ago? If it took you dating your notes in your first class, or The Chronicle cover, to realize that today is Sept. 11, you're probably not alone. In fact, you may even be in the majority.
I know where I was. I woke up, got off my loft in Edens, turned on the Telly and witnessed Tower #2 collapsing, live. The rest is a bit of a blur, between the shock, the tears, the horror stories and the frantic efforts to call home.
What followed may be one of our nation's finest hours. Patriotism ran rampant, with American flags everywhere. Suddenly people from all over were pretending to Love New York. Proud to Be An American was on every station, and it was cool to display loyalty to our country.
A few days ago, I approached a good friend whom I often ask for advice on my columns. I told him that this one would be coming out on Sept. 11th, which thus limited my topics. I was shocked at his response: "In my opinion, I don't think you necessarily have to talk about Sept. 11." And this is from a Political Science Major. Not mention Sept. 11? Surely he was in a state of confusion. Maybe he didn't realize what Sept. 11 I was talking about. And then I started thinkin'.
Less than two years later, where have we come? We have reverted to old habits, and in many cases, regressed. I came to the conclusion that it has taken many of us only two years to forget the tragic events that befell New York City and Washington, D.C. The day that people compared to the day Kennedy was shot, the day that was to define our generation, has seemed to have had the effects of the Summer Olympics--two weeks later we go back to hating our neighbors and judging each other.
Every four years we get together to realize how great a nation we live in, and how lucky we are to live here, and after two weeks we go back to bitching about "We Will Never Forget" has been replaced by "Blood for Oil". What should be a national holiday honoring the courage of our Fire and Police Departments is now nothing more than another Thursday to most.
I'm as guilty as the next. I'm from New York, with friends who lost parents, yet every other week I get up in here and complain about one petty thing or another this school isn't doing for me. And with many relatives in Israel, I have been taught that the only way to beat terrorism is to not let it affect your everyday life. We must move on. But it doesn't mean we must forget.
I truly believe that if people would stop and remember how they felt following the worst terrorist attacks on American soil, then maybe they wouldn't be so quick to criticize our country. Those attacks were aimed at all of us, not just the areas that were hit. There are enough people out there hating us already, we do not need our own betraying us.
Calling President Bush greedy, idiotic or selfish, while all possibly true, does not change the fact that we are targets. You do not accomplish change by self-degradation. You use the principle that makes this country so great: democracy. A year from now we have the chance to decide if President Bush keeps his job or goes back to Texas. And that's one thing the people of Iraq didn't have six months ago. Sept. 11 should have taught us all a lesson. If anything, we as the citizens of the most powerful country in the world should have realized there are more important things than what teen pop stars are dating and who got picked on last night's The Bachelor.
Instead, more people know the size of J-Lo's wedding rock than what region of the world is involved with "The Roadmap" (it's the Middle East, a much more important block than the one Jenny is still from). We continue to drive our SUVs, and then complain about Bush's "War For Oil." Have we not learned anything?
Maybe I'm overreacting. This is my first Sept. 11 in this country since then, having spent the first anniversary abroad. So hopefully today I see the patriotism I haven't seen for a while.
What I do know is that today should be one of remembrance, and also one of appreciation. It should make us all realize that we don't need fireworks to understand how lucky we are to live in this country.
Tal Hirshberg is a Trinity senior. His column appears every other Thursday.
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