On 9/11 and The Promise of Unity

A reflection on that terrible day, the troubled aftermath and the possibility of a less-divided future

Commemorating the victims of the 9/11 terror attack at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago via Getty Images)

On this day, the 23rd anniversary of 9/11, I’m reminded of the widely shared conviction that we are strengthened by unity. That stirring notion of we are all in this together—and that, in turn, as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently expressed in 1858, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

The need for unity was certainly true that terrible day in 2001 when foreign terrorists committed a previously unimaginable attack at New York’s World Trade Center, one that led to the death of nearly 3,000 of our fellow humans. And for a brief moment there was a coming together, not only on these shores, but throughout the democratic world and beyond.

I remain grateful for the front-page headline published on Sept. 12, 2001 by the French newspaper Le Monde: “Nous sommes tous Américains” (“We are all Americans”). As Le Monde’s editor-in-chief wrote, “In this tragic moment, when words seem so inadequate to express the shock people feel, the first thing that comes to mind is this: We are all Americans!…Indeed, just as in the gravest moments of our own history, how can we not feel profound solidarity with those people, that country, the United States, to whom we are so close and to whom we owe our freedom, and therefore our solidarity?”

How indeed. And how we have allowed ourselves to slip into such soul-crushing disunity, driven in the aftermath of 9/11 by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and other GOP powerbrokers who exploited that heinous episode to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, lie about Weapons of Mass Destruction, install the Patriot Act, launch secret CIA torture sites, engage in waterboarding, establish confusing orange and red terror threat levels from a massive new Department of Homeland Security, and pursue a War on Terror to root out evil while fear-fueled Muslim hate crimes skyrocketed.

And now, a vision of unity seems almost preposterous with a malignant ex-president and leader of the Republican Party who is absorbed with putting down and tearing apart America. We heard it last night during the debate: America is “sick” and “dying” and “horrible,” he said. “We are a failing nation,” he said. “We are a nation in serious decline,” he said. “We are laughed at all over the world,” he said. “We are going to end up in a third world war,” he said.

Perhaps many of us have become accustomed to Donald Trump’s hate and hostility, be it cultists convinced this is powerful truth-telling rather than weak, slavish attraction to autocratic dictators who despise America or moderate Americans exhausted by the sadistic pleasure Trump takes in carnage. But let’s not doubt that democracy and the expansion of domestic solidarity will struggle to advance as long as this wannabe dictator and virulent demagogue remains on stage.

Let’s take strength from Kamala Harris’ comments last night in response to Trump questioning her racial identity as a way to activate his followers and drive a wedge between Americans. “I do believe that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said. “And we don't want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us, and especially by race.”

She continued by insisting that “I think the American people want better than that…I travel our country, we see in each other a friend. We see in each other a neighbor. We don't want a leader who is constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other. I meet with people all the time who tell me ‘Can we please just have discourse about how we're going to invest in the aspirations and the ambitions and the dreams of the American people?’”

That discourse which invests in a positive future for America is exactly what the terrorists of 9/11 wanted to permanently destroy. Engaging in that discourse is what can make the Republican nominee and his enablers—who tie their fortunes to ending America’s democratic way of life—increasingly irrelevant and ultimately obsolete.

Three years ago, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I wrote an essay recounting my own memories of that awful day and what came after. I referenced journalist and historian Garrett M. Graff who noted, “A day that initially created an unparalleled sense of unity among Americans has become the backdrop for ever-widening political polarization.”

But I concluded with hope: “As time goes on, the memories of the nearly 3,000 souls that perished that day will inevitably continue to fade. But it remains up to each of us to do what we can to help revive the more loving and less fearful country that was lost in the failed aftermath.”

With the emergence of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, that hope of a more loving country seems not only less preposterous, but maybe even possible. As the vice president pledged last night, she and her running mate offer “a new generation of leadership for our country. One who believes in what is possible, one who brings a sense of optimism about what we can do instead of always disparaging the American people.”

Their success means that the goals of those 9/11 terrorists to tear us apart and break our way of life can still fail. It’s not too late to prove we are stronger together.

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