COMMENTARY: What We Had, What We Lost, What We Have

c. 2004 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. Visit his Web site at http://www.onajourney.org.) (UNDATED) I skip an end-of-summer swim party but overhear the disc jockey’s concluding salute to America, a song radiating patriotic rage and promising to […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. Visit his Web site at http://www.onajourney.org.)

(UNDATED) I skip an end-of-summer swim party but overhear the disc jockey’s concluding salute to America, a song radiating patriotic rage and promising to rain destruction on whoever brought terror to our shores three years ago.


Such a song might have made a certain manly-man sense when 9/11 pain was still fresh. Today it sounds ugly and cheap.

It does get me thinking about what we have learned since Sept. 11, 2001.

As is often the case in human affairs, we know more than we knew but not as much as we need to know. We were curious only as long as it took to restore our equilibrium. We studied which government agencies to blame but stopped short of understanding the why and who of Sept. 11.

We know now, for example, that much of the world loathes America. But we haven’t remained interested in discerning why. We don’t think ourselves loathsome, so why should anyone else? Maybe they are envious, we figure, or ungrateful.

What they tell us we don’t want to hear. We haven’t remained curious as to why our cultural values come across as heathen and hedonistic, or why our overseas presence seems to them greedy and bullying, or why we are perceived as weak and shallow, an easy mark for the disciplined and committed. We don’t perceive ourselves that way, so why should they?

We aren’t required to accept their perceptions, but it is foolhardy not to know how others view us and why.

We didn’t go deeply enough into understanding Islam. We pigeonholed it as a competing religion whose adherents we would tolerate but not learn from.

We got momentarily weepy over heroism in New York, but soon began to harvest heroes as symbols for lesser causes, like political campaigns and T-shirts. We learned little about ourselves as possibly made from that same heroic stock. We made bravery and sacrifice seem rare commodities, beyond normal reach. We analyzed response systems as if human heroism were secondary to technology. We encouraged lawsuits, blaming, denial of benefits, competitions for design contracts and fee-rich hearings _ as blue-collar sacrifice became a white-collar bonanza.


We panicked. Understandably so. Who among us had ever experienced such events? Before panic could give way to sober reflection, the political class created another bureaucracy, took away significant freedoms, ramped up for war against imaginary villains and abandoned any accountability for outcomes. Eager for normal, we allowed politicians to change normal in far-reaching ways and give it back to us as a new and necessary equilibrium.

At a time when we needed subtlety, nuanced understanding, careful exploration and wisdom, we received _ and agreed to accept _ patriotic fervor, photo ops, strutting, slogans, and now a slash-and-burn presidential campaign in which the actual causes and personalities of Sept. 11 are invisible.

Three years ago, we tasted oneness and found it a glorious feast. In the shock of Sept. 11, we prayed together. We connected with our neighbors. We smiled at strangers. We shared a brief burst of decent patriotism, grounded in shared love of country. We felt empowered as citizens.

Then we gave it all away. Religious zealots took back the night, and now our faith communities are more divided than ever. We resumed our normal distancing from each other, now with added suspicion. We dropped decent patriotism and resumed partisan grabs for flag-waving rights. Crafty leaders convinced us only they could make things right.

Rather than repent, we declared our righteousness. Rather than learn, we insisted on already knowing. Rather than see reality, we blamed. Rather than open our hearts to love, our minds to wisdom and our souls to God, we retreated behind familiar walls. Now we are isolated in the world, divided from each other, fighting for scraps of religious and political right-opinion, and more vulnerable than ever to further assault.

It is tragic. And we have done it to ourselves. Pride and blindness won again. Repentance _ God’s avenue to wisdom and peace _ was declared weak and unnecessary.


MO/PH END EHRICH

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