I don’t think any of us who saw it will ever forget 9/11. It was a day of great sorrow, anger, gut-wrenching loss. It was a day that united all Americans.
Unfortunately, we would see the unity of that day fade as the war against the perpetrators and the wider world of terrorism expanded. And it dragged on. The death toll from 9/11 grew as the members of our military took the battle to the enemy. Eight years later, it continues.
There were – are — many aspects of the war where legitimate differences exist. One that I never really understood, however, was the belief that somehow freedom, liberty, democracy were such alien concepts to those in the Middle East.
This idea animated a great deal of anti-war opposition on the left, as well as some of it on the right.
It didn’t make sense to me. If our yearning to be free, and if all men are created equal, were real, how could it be true just for us living on this plot of land between the Atlantic and Pacific.
Of course, there are cultural differences. And only the immature mind would think that were those in Iraq, Afghanistan or somewhere similar given the opportunity for democracy that it would instantly emerge without friction. It certainly didn’t happen here. Recall the Civil War.
This belief that “they” can’t handle freedom is elitist, an epithet hurled at George W. Bush by his opponents even as he sought to establish a new democracy in the Middle East as one of the ways to fight terrorism.
So, why bring this up now? Bush is out of the White House and his opponents firmly planted in the corridors of Washington power.
On TV recently was a special about Arlington National Cemetery. It was both a sad and inspiring reminder of those who have died in the fight against terrorism, as well as all the battles America has faced.
In one segment was the story of the eternal flame that burns as a reminder of the legacy and tragic loss of JFK. As the camera panned, it caught part of the president’s inauguration speech inscribed on a wall.
We are quite familiar with the line, “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” But it was the following line that was spied by the camera and until now, at least to me, was not well known:
“My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
This was JFK acknowledging the universal call to freedom that all men have in their hearts. It incorporates cooperation among countries, the same effort the U.S. has made in battling terror.
We are seeing this evolve in Iran. While the government that emerges there to replace the Islamic Republic might not be much friendlier to the U.S. (though we could be taking steps that would help endear us to a new government), it will have moved one step closer to freedom and that cannot be bad.
There is nothing elitist in what America sought under Bush, nor what Kennedy called for. If any nation’s citizenry should understand this, it should be Americans.
