{"id":6652,"date":"2023-09-11T08:22:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T12:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=6652"},"modified":"2023-09-11T08:22:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T12:22:09","slug":"the-day-after-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2023\/09\/11\/the-day-after-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Day After"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Division<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I was talking to a veteran this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0We know each other well: I was his high school cross country coach.\u00a0\u00a0Surprisingly for these days, we were actually talking politics, but more in general than in specific.\u00a0\u00a0We talked about the great divide in America, the polarization to the point where \u201ctalking politics\u201d outside of your own bubble is a recipe for anger and insult.\u00a0\u00a0And he reminded me of something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knows I\u2019m a Democrat, but he said:  \u201cI don\u2019t know what you think of George W Bush as President, but we\u2019ve never been more united than on September 12, twenty-two years ago.\u201d  And I told him the truth, I didn\u2019t like much about George Bush before that week.  In fact, I struggled to accept him as President, seeing him as elected more by the five Republicans on the Supreme Court than by the Nation.  But that week, after September 11th  <\/sup>2001, I was united with the rest of the Nation behind his leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Heard\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bush\u2019s own actions did it.\u00a0\u00a0The military and the Secret Service shuffled him around like a pea in a shell game on September 11th<\/sup>:\u00a0\u00a0He fled a second grade classroom in Florida for Barksdale Air Base in Louisiana, and then Offutt Air Base in Nebraska.\u00a0\u00a0It was at that moment, hidden in a bunker, Bush \u201cbecame\u201d President.\u00a0\u00a0He ordered Air Force One back into the air, the only plane in the American skies, and he flew back to Washington.\u00a0\u00a0He spoke to the Nation and the World.\u00a0\u00a0And then, three days later, he went down into the still smoking wreckage of the World Trade Center.\u00a0\u00a0He held up a bullhorn, surrounded by hard-hat workers and firefighters.\u00a0\u00a0He started to speak and the workers farther away yelled out, \u201cWe can\u2019t hear you\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And Bush responded with a spontaneous phrase that galvanized a Nation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

America \u2013 we knew it was time to go to war.  And we were more than ready, even the Democrats who voted for Al Gore ten months earlier, even those of us who protested Vietnam.  We were ready to make those that attacked feel America\u2019s wrath.  It wouldn\u2019t last; the \u201cjustified\u201d war in Afghanistan morphed into a less clear attack on Iraq.  The atrocities at CIA \u201cDark Sites\u201d and Abu Gharib created fractures in American resolve.  But for those first weeks, months and even maybe that first year; we were the America of December 8th<\/sup>, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor.  We were the \u201cGreat Democracy\u201d, willing to use the \u201crighteous might\u201d of our forefathers to avenge our losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defenders<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For me, those days have the crystal clear memories of the moments before a car crash, the second-by-second hyper-focus that never goes away.  I\u2019ve written about that before, in an essay titled Eighteen Years Ago<\/a>.  And I\u2019ve told the \u201cstories\u201d around 9-11, from the stirring monuments to the courageous survivors in other essays, including Twenty-One Years Ago<\/a> and Shanksville<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the young men and women I taught around that time felt compelled to defend our Nation.  They went to war in far-away places, in situations where there were few \u201crules of engagement\u201d, at least for the enemy.  Some sacrificed their lives, and many more sacrificed their youth and their health to make sure that those  \u201c\u2026 people who knocked these buildings down would hear from all of us\u201d<\/em>.    They went for the same reasons my father\u2019s generation went to Europe and the Pacific in World War II.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teachers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

My friend and I are both teachers, though I am retired.  He teaches medics how to deal with crises, hopefully not like 9-11.  What used to be a common memory, like a current event in his classroom, is now a page in the history book.  Most of his students are too young to remember anything but the images of collapsing buildings \u2013 maybe a memory of the day, more likely impressed from thousands of repetitions on television.  And while they may know the \u201cfacts\u201d of 9-11, they cannot \u201cremember\u201d the unity of the 12th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are America.\u00a0\u00a0Do not let the division of today, determine our necessary unity tomorrow.\u00a0\u00a0History shows the error of foreign leaders\u00a0\u00a0\u201ctaking advantage\u201d of American divisions. It didn\u2019t work; not in World Wars I and II, not on 9-11, not even in Ukraine.\u00a0\u00a0American politics is like a family \u2013 the brothers can fight each other like mortal enemies, but don\u2019t let an outsider attack one.\u00a0\u00a0The brothers will be shoulder to shoulder fighting back.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s hard to imagine such unity right now, Red Hats and Rainbow Shirts.  But it doesn\u2019t require a National disaster to achieve it.  Unity is still here.  We see communities come together, regardless of politics, in disasters and crises.  We can still work together for the betterment of our towns, regardless of who we choose for President.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am a \u201cblue\u201d living in a sea of \u201cred\u201d.  But we are all American.  And today is not only a day to remember the fallen on 9-11, but a day to remember the unity of the day after.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Division I was talking to a veteran this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0We know each other well: I was his high school cross country coach.\u00a0\u00a0Surprisingly for these days, we were actually talking politics, but more in general than in specific.\u00a0\u00a0We talked about the great divide in America, the polarization to the point where \u201ctalking politics\u201d outside of your own … Continue reading “The Day After”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Day After : Our America - 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