Warning! Below lies an opinion you may not share. I first wrote this about 3 years ago. My opinion of the matter has not changed.
(An Excerpt)
Patriot Day, 2002
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
…Those whom we lost last September 11 will forever hold a cherished place in our hearts and in the history of our Nation. As we mark the first anniversary of that tragic day, we remember their sacrifice; and we commit ourselves to honoring their memory by pursuing peace and justice in the world and security at home. By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001 (Public Law 107-89), the Congress has authorized and requested the President to designate September 11 of each year as "Patriot Day." …
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.
GEORGE W. BUSH I’ve been thinking. I’ve been thinking a lot. What is a patriot? Dictionary says it’s a person with a zealous love of their country. September 11th is now officially “Patriot Day”. Alright. Who’s that for?
The people whose lives we are memorializing or deaths we are commemorating on September 11th were not strictly patriots. I think in this sense a patriot will die for his/her country and the beliefs associated with it, but the people who died that day, save for the terrorists, did not die for their beliefs. They just died. Were murdered. Unforgettable acts of true bravery were in evidence, no question of that. The men and women in the first responders, the passengers of all the doomed flights, the self-sacrificing citizens of New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, each of these groups presented the world with examples of courage in the face of overwhelming, senseless horror. I am sure that all of the victims of September 11th had a natural, undeniable love for their country, non-US citizens included, but does that make them patriots? They most certainly died because of their country, but they died simply as citizens. They all died doing their job. Could’ve been an earthquake or a gas main explosion. Instead, a group of people we refuse to understand decided they had to do the most drastic, dire act to achieve their goal: strike a crippling blow to their enemy, and bring attention to their cause. We made this enemy. They craved understanding, then attention, then action, then vengeance.
That day should have been a wake-up call for this country. A day we became a part of the world, experiencing suffering as our neighbors have for all of known history. A day we gained insight into the part we’ve played in the suffering of others. A day that the consequences of living too well, too long, and at the expense of too many others, became unbearably clear. It was a sudden, unavoidable confrontation with our obvious mortality and our fragile place in the world. Instead of a wake up call, our government twisted it into a call to war.
Instead of embracing the rest of the world, we now divide it further. Instead of learning from our suffering, we now impose more suffering on others. Instead of unifying as a people, we question each other’s “patriotism”. Instead of protecting the innocent, we vilify and destroy. Instead of wisdom, we crave vengeance.
They were affluent businesspeople, middle-class workers, and low-wage laborers. They were moms, dads, wives, husbands, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, and friends. They died as individuals. I didn’t know a single one of them. Chances are, neither did you. As a nation, we mourn the loss of life of a group of people. We cannot properly mourn the loss of individuals. That’s for their families and friends. The Americans who died on September 11th were just like us. What exactly did they die for? That’s what I have been thinking about. They went to work one day, a really beautiful day, and they died. They had no choice in it. For the most part, they had no time to ask why or what they died for. In my luxurious conceit, I’d like to think they would rather have died for an end to war, not the furthering of it.
This last bit was edited from the original version by my former webmaster. I see no reason not to include it. Unfortunately, I feel even less forgiving of the policy now.You don’t have to package it for it to mean something. You don’t have to rename it for me to remember it. You don’t have to cram it down my throat for me to think about it. Calling this awful day “Patriot Day,” to me, celebrates unquestioning patriotism, blind nationalism, and arrogant abuse of power. It doesn’t commemorate the deaths of thousands of innocents, but packages up our grief into a proudly tearful, flag-waving, manageable bundle, meant to fill us with acceptance of unacceptable loss and approval of impossible, reckless policy. The lives lost that day are not celebrated or mourned with that name. Call it Patriot Day, if you want. If you ascribe to the spirit of zealous, unquestioning loyalty for your country, it’s the perfect name. It’s the perfect name for you.
I’ll call it September 11th. That’s the day they died. And it’s a day for them.
