weekly response

Nearly ten years have passed since the September 11th attacks. In his address this week, President Obama calls upon the nation to commemorate the anniversary by devoting a day to community service. Just as firefighters, soldiers, and regular citizens have given of themselves over the last decade, we can all contribute, whether in tiny bits or large chunks, to make our world more peaceful and just.

In his call to service, the President invokes the unity that our country found in the months following the attacks. Such a non-partisan atmosphere feels a distant memory in the rancorous political muck of today, and it is tempting to long for a revival of this spirit. How are we to become a great nation anew if we don't stop bickering?

Certainly, we would do well to bicker less. And we need not bicker purely for the sake of bickering. I agree with the President that we could spend our time more usefully, and he is right to direct us to serve our communities rather than picking our toenails or prowling Facebook.  

But on this tenth anniversary of our nation's deadliest terrorist attacks, President Obama needs also to rehash the less honorable aspects of our response. As a twelve-year-old in the fall of 2001, I listened to the local radio while citizens decried Islam and its faithful as inhuman agents of evil.  

"They should all be nuked," one caller demanded.

Just over a year later, an overwhelming majority of Congress voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq if Saddam Hussein refused to relinquish his weapons of mass destruction (which, needless to say, did not exist).

"America speaks with one voice," proclaimed President Bush.

This has been a decade marred by prisoners detained and tortured at Guantanamo Bay, without trial or basic human rights.  Last summer, a pastor in Gainesville, Florida planned to commemorate the September 11 attacks by hosting an "International Burn a Quran Day." On a regular basis, friends and strangers bait me, hoping that as a Jew, I will lash out and rant against Muslims, indulging in a dash of xenophobic backscratching.

We have been down this road before. German-Americans during World War I and Japanese-Americans during World War II tasted the foul byproduct of our patriotism. When will we learn?

On this anniversary, we can serve our country by joining a community service project organized by an unfamiliar church, or synagogue, or mosque. We can attend a new sort of religious service, even if only once. And when an ignorant or confused citizen tosses off a racist or ethnocentric comment, we can share our view of how important diversity is to our nation's fabric.  Such a response would serve our country better than the grim, stony silence that prevails all too often in the face of injustice.