I didn’t want to tune in to the long-winded televised reminders of the trauma of 9/11. The wake of that terrible event saw even the (ridiculously) maligned French declaring “We’re all Americans now,” a remarkable expression of the zeitgeist which might have continued had we but stuck to the ideals which used to define us. What happened instead was a major wrong turn, possibly the biggest squandering of good will in our brief history. Too many of us have chosen devolution, torture, pre-emptive war, and endless fearmongering. The fearmongers have laid claim to 9/11 as their ultimate justification, but all of us went through that time, and none of us “owns” it.
I did see one remarkable artwork this weekend at the Canal Gallery in Holyoke: Bruce Fowler’s plexiglass towers, maybe seven feet tall, containing a few handfuls of ashes from the Twin Towers. Uncomplicated, deeply affecting, and all too real. That was enough. A few minutes looking at them reminded me why the old American ideals are still worth standing up for, even though they’re all but gone to ashes, too.
Here is an interesting sign of hope from a new Pew Research poll–one which would likely be dealt another years-long blow by another terrorist attack:
“A majority (54%) say it is not necessary to give up civil liberties in order to curb terrorism while 40% hold the opposite view. In a poll taken right after the attacks, 55% had said it was necessary to give up civil liberties to effectively fight terrorism while 35% disagreed.”
