Eight years later
An eighth anniversary of an event is not one of those traditional "milestone" years that we often use to measure the passage of time. Five, 10, 25, 50: these are neat round numbers or slices of time that fit better into a retrospective framework. But the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks should be no less important than than the first one was, and the milestone years still to come will be.
In truth, the potency of all historic dates, like the anniversary of Pearl Harbor or D-Day fades with time as those who directly experienced the events age and pass away. But we are still close enough historically, and sadly, still embroiled in a conflict in Afghanistan that has a direct line to 9/11, so that it would be worth taking a moment to pause and reflect on what that day meant, and still means.
Almost 3,000 people died in the series of coordinated attacks launched by Islamic jihadist militants that day, the first time, it may be fairly said, that war came to the American homeland on that scale since the Civil War of the 1860s. It was shocking, tragic and its reverberations are still being felt today and will for years to come, as we try to wrestle with an increasingly sticky mess in Afghanistan, surely one of the world's least hospitable places for a force of outsiders -- this time it's us -- to impose order. The Russians tried, the British tried -- even Alexander the Great tried, and they all failed. It would be worth our leader's time to think deeply about what our goals really should be there before we ratchet this up another few levels.
But by then, more than 1,000 members of the Vermont National Guard, some of them from right here in Bennington County, will be deployed there. Hopefully, they will all return home safely after completing their nearly year-long mission.
It's easy to forget the fear and paranoia that swept the country in the initial few weeks and months after 9/11. That al-Qaeda would strike again was almost a given, and the country looked shockingly helpless to defend itself against suicidal terrorists. Then came the anthrax scare. The Patriot Act. Domestic surveillance and constitutionally dicey wiretapping. Guantanamo. Torture.
Let's also remember the courage and heroism of the firefighters and police who were the first responders to the attacks, both in New York and Washington D.C. We should remember the quiet heroism of thousands of people whose names will be probably be lost to history if they haven't been already, who did something, even if only in a small way, to help out in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.
The feeling of national unity and the sight of flags fluttering from cars may no longer be so prevalent as it was eight years ago, but it did remind us of what the bedrock virtues of this nation -- the eternal America -- is all about, and its worth remembering again today, even if only for a little while.
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