Nine-Eleven... A Glo-burban Perspective

We all remember where we were that fateful day, ten years ago.  I was in a science class at Millersville University when I learned about the attack.  My professor soberly cancelled class.  I then gathered with two students I knew, and we prayed.  I don't remember what we said.  From there I wandered to the cafeteria and watched the news with other students, all of us trying to wrap our minds around what was going on.  Jarred met me there (we were newlyweds as of 6 months and full-time students); we went home, confused, a little frightened, very sad.

This weekend, he and I relived that day by watching various documentaries about 9-11.  Much of the footage I had never seen before.  I heard stories of tragedy and heroism that I hadn't heard before either.  I cried as I listened to these inspiring and tragic stories, reminded of the fragile nature of life.

I also received a couple of forwards in my email inbox last week.  These forwards told me I should put a flag outside my front door to show my patriotism. One forward told me I should hate all of the countries who have not supported the US during this decade long war; it also told me that I should move to another country if I was an environmentalist who didn't want to drill for oil and that I should thank a soldier if I could read the email.  Finally, the email said I should forward this to ten friends in hopes of getting this to every American computer.

These messages assumed that proper patriotism and appropriate remembrance of the tragedy of the falling Trade Centers mandated flag-waving and finger-pointing. But I question if that really is true patriotism.  If that really is the response to ignorant, hateful acts of violence.

I read two blogs posts this morning that helped me put the tension between sorrow and anger into perspective.  In one reflection, Jim Wallis noted how the original response to 9-11 created a sense of vulnerability and dependence and care for one another, pieces of beauty and hope arising from the ashes of evil.  Yet too quickly, it was replaced by a call for revenge which has brought with it more hate, racism, devastation, and the loss of thousands more innocent lives. In a second reflection, Stefan Waligur wonders if the last ten years would have been different had we given ourselves more "soul" time, time to refect on the causes of the terrorist attacks, of peaceful solutions, of bridge-building.


If we assume that mankind has a right to survive then we must find an alternative to war and destruction. Don't ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have the compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight; we are always on the threshold of a new dawn. 

Martin Luther King Jr.  in his  speech, "Pilgrimage of Non-Violence" (1958)

Perhaps true patriotism is not following your nation's flag blindly; perhaps it means questioning it, even challenging it at times.  Perhaps true patriotism means looking beyond any flag for peace in the world.  What does true patriotism mean to you?