column: U.S. must find ways to use tragedy from the past to build a better future

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, or the 9/11 Report, begins: “At 8:46 on the morning of September 11, 2001 The United States became a nation transformed.” Yet have we been transformed as a country in a better way? “Never Forget,” usually are the words that follow stories about 9/11 — never forget the people, innocents and the first responders who died that heart-stopping day. There is perhaps no greater U.S. tragedy in these modern times than the series of terrorist acts and resulting deaths and emotional scars from September 11, 2001. Few, if any, will forget where they were that horrible day — the cascading feelings of disbelief, anger, and sadness that engulfed the nation when the world seemed to stand still. The 11th anniversary of 9/11 has passed while many people in our country paused to reflect on that day and the loss of life that surpassed the death toll at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Many communities honored the sacrifice and heroism of the average citizens as well as first-responders who helped and those who died and were injured on that fateful day. We must never forget the fear, anger, apprehension, and sadness that swept the nation, nor the dead, and the emotionally scarred individuals and families who were personally touched on 9/11. We must also remember the tentacles of that ugly day stretched into the future and even today impact service people and their families in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the world. Reflecting back on that time, I sensed the potential to galvanize the country around a shared vision and common agenda as emotions coalesced into nationalistic pride and patriotism — we were united against a common enemy and for a while the nation seemed as one. This sense of purpose and nationalistic pride was reminiscent of what I had learned in grade school textbooks about our country rallying after the only other attack on American soil by a foreign enemy — the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I recall Congress, Democrats and Republicans joining hands on the U.S. Capitol steps, the same steps I played on as a child growing up in the shadows of our nation’s capitol in Washington DC. I recall anger giving way to swelling national pride — a pride that made Americans rally together, not a country of red States and blue States, but the UNITED STATES of America. General Motors captured the day by encouraging consumers to spend again offering the “Keep America-Rolling” campaign to reboot the economy. Ford soon followed suit as they both tried to re-energize the economy with 0 percent interest loans on new car purchases. As important as this initiative economically was, it hardly was the rallying cry the nation needed to hear at this time of grief. Looking back, I believe our national leaders squandered the opportunity to reboot our nation — not just to do what the country singer Toby Keith sang, “ To put a boot in their ass — it is the American way,” but to come together as one, committed to something bigger than ourselves. We missed an FDR or JFK moment to ask our citizens to come together with pride where our collective energy and will would be more powerful than the sum of its parts. This would have been a perfect time to implement a national services initiative where every citizen was expected to provide a year of service to the country in the Armed Services, AmeriCorp or a similar civic service to our country. Instead, the country embarked on a borrowing spree from the Chinese to underwrite our national debt even as we cut taxes, increased entitlements, lost our top credit rating, started two wars (one using trumped-up military intelligence) that continue to drain our national treasury to this day. Even as the Great Recession of 2008 fades with each passing year, the body count continues to rise for the thousands of women and men in uniform who paid the ultimate price, fighting for our “freedom” in two wars. What sacrifices have we made as a nation — beyond those losing a son, daughter, grandchild, or other family member in the military? Clearly many of us on Main Street continue to get the shaft as policy decisions made in Washington, D.C. ran our country into a ditch while their Wall Street friends and bankers got the gold mine. Yet, this hardly compares to the thousands of dead and countless lives and families lying in ruins. We now have a politically polarized country that views “compromise” as a dirty word and castigates the political opposition as the enemy. As a country, today it seems we are heading, not unlike Thelma and Louise, over a fiscal cliff without much hope that we will pull together as a nation to get this country working again. In a few short weeks, voters will decide if President Barack Obama or Governor Mitt Romney will lead our nation going forward. I ask, and the country should demand, that whoever is elected rapidly move to bring us all together in a shared vision. Sacrifice is inevitable in developing an action agenda that honors the lives and sacrifice of all who have died or are physically and emotionally wounded along with their families since 9/11. We should never forget — but we MUST use this tragic remembrance of eleven years ago to help build a more perfect union. To do anything less is unacceptable. Tom Watkins has been a participant observer in the political/public policy arena for over 30 years. He served the citizens of Michigan as the former state superintendent of schools and state mental health director. He can be reached at tdwatkins88@gmail.com