Patriot Day Lamentation

The young and old are lying

on the ground in the streets;

my young women and my young men

have fallen by the sword;

Those who I bore and reared

my enemy has destroyed.

My eyes flow with rivers of tears

            because of the destruction of my people

Lamentations 2: 21,22; 3: 48

Yesterday the United States observed the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in which over 3,000 of her citizens perished.  It was not an attack on America’s military.  Rather it was designed to kill innocent citizens.  On October 25, 2001, Congress approved a joint resolution designating September 11 as “Patriot Day.”  Since 2009, September 11^th was renamed as the more cumbersome, “Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance.”

I have to admit that I have mixed feelings over the hoopla that has surrounded the observance of 9/11 each year since the tragedy.  On the one hand I believe it is right to remember those that were senselessly killed, along with the emergency responders that worked tirelessly to save lives in the wake of the attack.  On the other hand, I have trouble getting past those self-styled “patriots” that used the emotional backdrop of the tragedy for their own partisan political gains.  Chief among them were members of the Bush/Cheney administration, who at least in my mind, used the September 11 attacks to maintain and increase political power. 

First and foremost, they created an implied link to 9/11 to dupe the nation into an ill-conceived war with Iraq.  After what appeared to be a quick and easy victory (Mission Accomplished?), Iraq was torn by sectarian violence and resistance to the government that the U.S. tried to install.  The weapons of mass destruction that provided the basis for the U.S. invasion were never found.  Further, the war in Iraq resulted in the death of approximately 4,500 American soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqis.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War.  If there was a winner in the war, it would have to be Big Oil and a slew of oil service contractors.  http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html.  And the perpetrators of this misbegotten war were quick to wrap themselves in the American flag and to question the patriotism of those who for good reasons were opposed to this war.

Beyond the push to invade a country that had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, the Bush political strategists knew the value of a good war to help their guy get re-elected.  They learned from the mistake of Bush 41, whose artful rollback of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was too successful too quickly to help him in the election of 1992.  A never ending war on terrorism could be used by W’s strategists to declare their man a “wartime president.”  The Republicans unashamedly used images from the World Trade Center attacks and repeated the phase “9/11” in nearly every speech in the 2004 Republican Convention, which, of course, was held in New York City.  Then Republicans turned around and called “foul” when the Obama campaign trumpeted the killing of 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden, during their guy's watch. 

Then there was the so-called Patriot Act, passed quickly after the September 11 attacks which authorized an unheard of expansion of government surveillance over American citizens.  Many civil libertarians hoped that the Obama administration would lobby to reduce the snooping permitted by this legislation, but instead, it appears to have grown.  This President knows that any political gain from reducing government surveillance power would have quickly evaporated if any terrorist act had occurred during his administration that allegedly could have been prevented with the authorities granted by the Patriot Act. 

Reflecting Pool at 9/11 Memorial

That’s why I feel ambivalent about Patriot Day.  Too many mistakes were made by U.S. leaders who used the attacks as an excuse for pursuing courses of action that actually dishonor those who died that day.  Despite these feelings, I admit to being moved as I walked through the 9/11 memorial in NYC during a recent visit with my son.  Reading the names of those that died in the attack as I gazed into the bottomless reflecting pools was both an emotional and spiritual experience.  Also, I admit to feeling a twinge of patriotic pride seeing the so-called Freedom Tower (now officially called One World Trade Center) rising toward the heavens. 

One World Trade Center

I think I would feel better about the day if we could all finally draw together and agree to once and for all stop politicizing this tragedy.  I believe that Americans of all races, religions and political parties recognize the tragedy of the innocents killed on this day and the heroism of those who responded to the emergency to save as many lives as possible.  We should not forget what an act of terrorism is capable of doing to innocent men, women and children that go about their lives believing themselves to be safe from such unexpected violence.  Perhaps we would all feel better about observing this day if we drop the Patriot Day name and call it what it should be – a Day of Remembrance.  Let’s start a movement.