Americans,
Today is the 15th anniversary of what may be, but does not have to be, an ominously pivotal event in our history. The intervening years guarantee that our remembrances will be muffled under an even greater grief. In reality though, all our pain is of one essence. It is born of the singular will to distract us, to separate us, to tear us apart. It comes from unknown places, covertly, and after turning our world upside-down, it slinks back from whence it came.
Leave it to the historians to etch out the specific features of this monster. With a scientific hand they will carefully collect the data and test the evidence; and with equally artistic souls they will write the story as completely as it could be snatched from the jaws of time. It is for them to discern the different faces, different purposes and different pedigrees that make up the sum of our woes.
This is not our purpose, though. Much can be gained from defining the most subtle salient features of the problems confronting us, but we paradoxically lose focus if we don’t take a step back and ignore the minutiae of the world around us. The effects of terror do not discriminate; nor should we when discussing its origin.
We must discuss it. We must sit down and do the hard work of thinking about, then putting into words, the things that are eating at us, torturing us. We are ill-equipped for this, though. As Americans, our youth and the careening inertia of our development lend us to action. When we think and speak about our history we think and speak about action. When we see something we don’t like, we take action against it. We are people of action, and for this we are praised by ourselves as well as others.
Surely, we can never be accused of being a physically lazy people. In the 243 years of our existence we’ve been, arguably, the prime force behind a worldwide commercial expansion which outpaced that of any equal period of time previously known. We are titans – resplendently, terribly beautiful for the sheer force we level upon the landscape. We are both the irresistible force and the immovable object.
Lost in all this tidal momentum is the almost indiscernible, yet much more powerful, strand of gravity that set it all in motion. What gave birth to us – what sustains us – is not the wars we won or lost or the new spheres of trade we have opened. The vital sources of our welfare are the ideas that drive us and the complementary ideas that are born of the necessities we face.
Now, once again, we find ourselves in a precarious position in relation to these roots of our national power. The intoxicating rush of action threatens to wash away the sobering taste of critical thought.
Gut instinct makes one want to ask, “When did intellectualism become so unfashionable?” But gut instinct is exactly where the problem lies. Some of us take it upon ourselves to expound upon the intentions of the founding fathers, as if privy to the private thoughts that got Hamilton, Adams and Jefferson out of bed. Others propose to solve everybody’s problems with no more thought than it takes to scrawl an incomplete sentence on a placard.
Perhaps much of the blame falls in the laps of those who designed and responded to the crises of the 1960s, but no political organization holds a monopoly of responsibility for this state of affairs. What is important to recognize is that it is just this state of affairs which threatens to strangle our development as a nation. We come nearer and nearer to painting ourselves into a reactionary corner when we think the main means of expressing patriotism is to go out and shout at the top of your lungs, all the while ignoring the blatant logical dissonance of what we are saying. There is always a way out of this predicament, though: sit down, educate yourself, think about the problem, write about it. Then, when you think you have a firm understanding of the problem and the reason you feel the way you do, discuss it with friends and acquaintances. Expose your ideas to the open air and see what develops. If you still think you have a firm grasp on the issue at hand and have a cogent, logically constructed opinion, take action. But take that action in the same logical, responsible manner you formed your opinion.
When I was in high school, an English teacher took notice of my writing and thought it would be a good idea for me to submit an essay for a scholarship contest. The subject of the essay was to be, “What does it mean to be an American?” The essay I submitted was an ode to protest. I argued that protest and expressing dissent was what responsible Americans do, because it showed they cared about their country and wanted to make this known.
I did not win the scholarship, nor – in retrospect – do I feel I deserved it. If I were to write that essay now, I would argue that to be an American is to think about how to be a better American – to think about real solutions to the problems that confront our country and then to go about trying to implement them in some positive way. The way to destroy America is to simply repeat the mantra “no, no, no.” To rest on negativity is to lessen the country. I personally feel we have lost too much in the last 15 years.
So I would like to suggest that this anniversary might be best memorialized not through action, but through the more difficult work of applying logic to our sentiments and the stronger courage of admitting the results and living by them.
Thank you,
Kevin Radley
