September 11, 2005.
George W. Bush was still President. Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate. Vice President Cheney said about Iraq: "I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." Afghanistan had receeded to an afterthought of the Bush Administration. (It was still over a year before Bush would admit that capturing Osama bin Laden was "not a top priority".)
I was a local party official at the time.
We happened to be having a picnic/fundraiser on that day.
Because 9-11 did define us, had re-defined us, I thought it was not only right but necessary to talk about it, to acknowledge it and to at least attempt to put both 9-11 and our little local political event in some kind of context on that day.
Looking at it now, I think I could say pretty much the same thing this Sunday. We watch the nightly news reports of a "credible specific threat" (being investigate not yet confirmed) and we are reminded that the same threat exists today that existed on September 10, 2001, a threat many denied or ignored.
This newst threat should also remind us that how we as Americans respond to such threats, how we join in letting its on-going presence re-define us and shape our Country is an issue as potent today as it was in 2005 and as it was in 2000.
It demands our attention and attention must be paid.
Here is what I said:
Today is September 11, the fourth anniversary of 9-11.
I remember exactly where I was when I heard. I remember the sights and sounds of that day with a vividness matched by few other days in my life.
And as I think of that day, it seems right for us to be here on this day. If you believe as I do, that politics is how we exercise our right to self government and secure the future for ourselves and our children; it seems right to be here today.
But 9-11 demands attention and attention must be paid.
In 2001 this date on the calendar changed. It was changed as we were changed. That much is undeniable. But I think the real lesson of that day is being lost.
It has been 4 years since terrorists murdered thousands of people here in our country and in that time the emotional power of 9-11 has been used (and misused) to justify and excuse, to motivate and intimidate, and it has been used to generate fear.
We cannot un-see the images we saw of that day or un-hear the sounds we heard from that day.
We cannot, will not forget the people that died that day – ordinary folks, just living their lives and doing their jobs.
And we will never stop in our efforts to bring a hard and final justice to all those that are responsible and to better protect our Country and our people.
But today, four years later, I need to ask:
Isn’t it time to put our fear away?
Isn’t it time to look back on 9-11 and learn its real lesson?
Many of our Country’s leaders have tried to convince us that the lesson of 9-11 should be fear and hate and yet more violence, but I think that lesson sells America short.
Here’s what I think the lesson of that day really is:
For a period of time after 9-11, we became a national community; more real and connected than I have ever known. And almost the entire world stood with us.
We were pulled into something larger than ourselves.
We were pulled by the images of destruction and by the even more potent images of the people, whose lives were brought into our living rooms like life-long friends, except that we knew that those lives had already been taken away or torn beyond repair.
These people, the people that were lost on 9-11, became our friends and neighbors and through their loss, we were all drawn closer together as neighbors, as a community.
We must not allow this truly transformational power of
9-11 to be distorted, or diverted, or lost.
We need to renew that feeling of belonging to something greater, of working towards something better, of being part of the people of this nation and in community with the people of the world.
We need to look back at the events of 9-11 and say:
• No matter what comes, we will keep on living our lives and doing what we can to make our country greater and our world better for everyone.
• No matter what comes, we will keep on exercising our political rights and fighting for our basic economic rights, fighting for tolerance, for peace and for justice.
We need to look back at 9-11 and say:
• While we are all just ordinary citizens, we are all living in an extra-ordinary democracy and nothing and no one will take that away from us.
We need to look back at 9-11 and then we need to look forward and say:
• We will keep on looking for and fighting for the promise that is America – because that is what Americans do; it is what we have always done; and that my friends, is why we are here today.
I think 9-11 did re-define us. I don't think we can ignore or deny that.
What matters now is to understand that this new definition of America is still being written.