Opinion : 9/11: The day that almost changed America

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The questions that Alan Jackson asked our nation on Nov. 7, 2001 -- less than two months after 9/11 -- are questions we should hear again as we commemorate the 10th anniversary of that awful day.

"How will you remember 9/11?"

The solemn question filled the speakers at the Vinton Palace Theatre Saturday morning as we watched the Iowa/Iowa State game on the big screen.

The commercial was moving. Several celebrities told us what they would be doing today to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the event that killed 3,000 of us and led us into a decade of war and another 5,000 American deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"I will pray," said one man. "I will plant a tree in honor of those who died," said another.

Then the commercial was over.

Within seconds, the audience was laughing.

Yes, laughing.

The very next commercial that played after the 9/11 tribute was a promotion for cable TV show about idiot drivers and the stupid stunts they tried with a variety of vehicles. We saw about 10 different crashes, all of them quite unnecessary.

It was funny.

The laughter, however, helped us forget the message we had just heard seconds ago: America needs to remember 9/11.

That's not surprising, however.

We, as a nation, have been forgetting 9/11 in some surprising ways for the past 10 years.

Changed forever?

Those two commercials created a picture of what I've observed about 9/11 and its impact on America.

A decade ago, commentators were telling us that what we saw on our TV screens would change us forever.

We saw our members of Congress -- yes, all of them -- standing on the steps of the Capitol, singing "God Bless America." We heard many of our politicians say that the terror attacks would unite us in new ways as we joined our hearts in an effort to defeat this enemy.

Then we went back to killing each other.

Every year, from 2002 to 2008, there were more murders in the U.S. then there were in 2001.

In 2006, at the worst part of the war in Iraq, Americans decided that 4,000 American deaths was way too many, so we voted out on party in Congress and voted in the other party.

But there's a statistic about American deaths that virtually everyone, especially those who work in Washington, D.C. ignores: From the time that Saddam Hussein first invaded Kuwait in 1990 until the death of Osama bin Laden a few months ago, there were as many murders in the Washington, D.C. area as there were Americans killed in three wars in the Middle East.

And our national response to 5,000 murders within miles of the White House is: Silence.

Failing the tests

Most of us thought, on Sept. 11, 2001, that what we saw, and felt, would change us, as individuals, and as a nation, for the better, for good.

In some ways, it did. Americans are more patriotic. We have more respect for soldiers. And thanks to the heroism of the first responders, we now show more respect for police officers and firefighters. And we honor soldiers more than we did a decade ago.

But in most ways that matter most, 9/11 did not make any long-lasting impact on American society.

In addition to continuing to kill each other like we did before, Americans continued to be impolite to each other. Most polls a few months after 9/11 indicated that most Americans seemed to think that we were just as rude as we were on Sept. 10, 2001.

We thought that 9/11 might make us more serious, more intellectual.

Wrong again. A survey by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007 indicated that the average American spend two hours a day watching TV, and seven minutes reading.

And those who studied our TV programming have determined that the intellectual quality of what we watch is, to put it in words those who watch it can comprehend, like, totally not as smart as it used to be.

"The Little Rascals" was written at an 8th grade level, according to those who evaluate the scripts. Modern sitcoms like "Seinfeld" are written for sixth graders. Most programs are less thoughtful and more vulgar than those of a decade ago. And nobody seems to care enough to ask the producers to change what they do.

And why should they? There are Americans who watch the not-so-smart plaintiffs and defendants on "Judge Judy" than those who watch "Jeopardy." We, as a society are choosing the silly over the smart when it comes to our television preferences.

It should not surprise us then, that most surveys of American test scores show that our students are less prepared for college in 2011 then 2001.

Thousands of years ago, a wise man warned us about the danger of laughing at the wrong things. "What amuses you, you soon become," he said.

And I think most Americans are at least a bit alarmed at what we, as a nation are becoming.

A day to start remembering

All Americans who were old enough to understand 9/11 when it happened will remember, today, where they were and how they felt as they watched the World Trade Center disappear and the Pentagon burn.

We will remember going to church for memorial service, or moments of silence.

And we should.

But we should also realize that for too many of us, 9/11 did not produce any lasting change.

What can we do?

A few things, I think. Turn off the TV. And the Ipod. And the smart phone. And any other device that fills your ears with noise.

Sit.

Think.

Read.

Pray.

Ask what you can do to make yourself, and your country, better.

But don’t just do all of that stuff today. Do it tomorrow, too. And next month. And next year.
We can't honor the memory of those who died on Sept. 11, 2001 any other way.