Parts of this essay first appeared in The Paradise Progressive
As we approach Election Day and perhaps the most momentous election since 1860, it’s worth remembering one of the most meaningful democratic elections in American history.
It didn’t occur in a polling place or on a national stage. Rather, it occurred on Sept. 11, 2001 in the body of United Airlines Flight 93, scheduled to go from Newark, NJ to San Francisco, Calif.
The plane was taken over by Al Qaeda hijackers. The pilots were killed or incapacitated. Two terrorists took over the controls and locked themselves in the cockpit. Another stood outside the cabin door, wearing what appeared to be a suicide vest that he threatened to explode.
The 33 passengers and crew had seen the mayhem. They were in touch with friends and family on the ground. They knew that other planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York (another would crash into the Pentagon). They knew they were likely headed for death.
They caucused in the back of the plane to weigh the alternatives. Should they attack the hijackers or sit tight? They knew they were facing a life or death decision.
So they took a vote. They took a vote because that’s how Americans make decisions.
When we are faced with a decision, when we are faced with a course of action, we take a vote. There was one passenger, Todd Beamer, who said, “OK, let’s roll.”
So they attacked the terrorist in the cabin and then used a serving cart to batter their way into the cockpit. There they struggled with the hijackers at the controls.
The plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Everyone died.
But by their action, those passengers and crew probably saved the United States Capitol building, which was one of the hijackers’ likely targets, along with the White House and who knows how many Americans on the ground.
I feel a particular debt to those passengers. I was working in downtown Washington, DC on 9/11 when the Pentagon was hit (I heard the impact and thought it was a car collision in the street below my office). My wife was at work in our home in the Virginia suburbs. My son was attending a high school adjacent to the CIA campus. The CIA leadership was so worried about an attack on the main building that they evacuated to the agency’s printing plant.
Given its possible impacts, the vote on Flight 93 was probably one of the most consequential in American history.
But it also illustrates the depth and pervasiveness of American democracy. When Americans need to chart a course, or make a decision, when their very lives are at stake, they vote and abide by the majority results.
When those passengers voted, no one called the vote a sham. No one said it was rigged. No one refused to accept the outcome. No one lied that it had gone otherwise. They acted on their own behalf but also on behalf of the country and they did so by voting.
In America, democracy undergirds absolutely everything, every activity, not just in government. It’s what governs Americans’ daily behavior. It’s what gives Americans their rights. It pervades American commerce (think of shareholder votes in corporations or unions voting to accept a contract). Even families put choices to a vote. It confers legitimacy on decisions great and small. It’s a way of life.
This is what’s at stake in this year’s elections. It is a shame and a horror that 20 years after 9/11, the fanatical followers of a twisted president attempted to end American democracy by attacking the sacred building that the passengers and crew of Flight 93 gave their lives to protect.
This readership doesn’t need to be exhorted to vote or told the consequences of a victory for fascistic Trumpism.
But it’s worth noting that today we have hijackers trying to take over the cockpit again and we’re all the passengers in the back of that plane. These people are trying to take that aircraft into darkness and disaster and dictatorship. And we have got to get control of that aircraft.
On Tuesday we will hold our election. I hope and pray that we will get this airplane, the United States of America, under control and when we do, we will all land it safely in freedom and democracy.
Until then, let’s roll.
© 2024 by David Silverberg
