It has been a wounding decade. Our country is frayed, uncertain, inflamed. There is hardship and dread in the land. In significant ways we are a people in need of renovation. But what rouses the mourner from his sorrow is his sense of possibility, his confidence in the intactness of the spirit, his recognition that there is work to be done. What we loved and what we valued has survived the disaster, but it needs to be secured and bettered, and in that secure and better condition transmitted to our children. Our dream of greatness must be accompanied by an understanding of what is required for the maintenance of greatness. The obscenities of September 11, 2001 exposed the difference between builders and destroyers. We are builders. Let us agree, on this anniversary, that it is an honor to be an American and it is an honor to be free.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
A fitting coda for 9/11/11
Leon Wieseltier implicitly acknowledges the many things that have gone wrong in the U.S. since 9/11 but affirms that we maintain our core virtue and ability to self-correct. Looking back at my brief lament, I appreciate his superior balance:
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Although the jihadists didn't manage any attacks on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, thanks to the vigilance the security agencies, we can expect they'll try again in the run up to Christmas. Jihadists hate Christmas and want to make it a time of suffering for the infidels.
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