Opinion : Why Sept. 12 should be a National Holiday

This week, Americans observed the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Unlike the 10th anniversary, there were not as many stories about that historically horrible event. But still, in NYC and DC, there were many memorial events and moments of silence.

While I always thought we should commemorate 9/11, I also have always thought we do it all wrong.

For one thing, the name: Patriot’s Day.

America already has a Patriot’s Day: April 19. We do. Look it up. That’s the day that the first Patriot – one who believed America should declare Independence from Great Britain – gave his life for that cause in 1775. The famous Longfellow poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” captured that moment in literature.

The name “Patriot’s Day,” of course comes from The USA PATRIOT ACT. That law, of course, was designed to give federal authorities more authority to investigate those who may try to import terrorism (it did not, however, require federal officials, agents, or members of Congress to actually pay attention).

Someone in Congress spent a lot of time in the fall of 2001 thinking of an important-sounding name for this legislation before they finally settled on : Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT..

I hated the PATRIOT ACT’s name from the start. For one thing, Congress needs to learn that giving a bill a name intended to increase public support for it does no good at all. I generally agreed with most of what was in the bill, but putting the name “Patriot” on something that gives government more power implies that if you oppose anything in that law, you are not a USA patriot. That’s just insulting to the true patriots.

But, you may ask: If we should remember Sept. 11, but should not call it “Patriot’s Day,” then what name should we use?”

Good question.

I spent about an hour on 9/11, 2001, in a Washington, Iowa, classroom with sixth graders and a teacher known for his love of history. I spent another hour or so in a café, sitting with a group of people who have lived through World War II.

“This is like Pearl Harbor,” said one elderly gentleman. Everyone agreed. So did I.

But, he was wrong. We all were.

Pearl Harbor changed the daily life of virtually every American. Sept. 11 did not.

I got up on the morning of Sept. 12, 2001, and went to work like every day before – and I have done that every day since.

Sure, those directly affected by the attacks and their families; along with those who lived in NYC or DC that dreadful day were changed forever. So were the lives of the soldiers and sailors who ended up going to Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else in the War on Terror – and their families.

But for most of us, other than some inconveniences in air travel or other things that saw more government oversight after 9/11, daily life did not change at all.

We thought America would be more united after 9/11.

We were not: For the next five years, New Yorkers killed more of each other than they had before 9/11.

Congress did not change either. Sure, we got our elected officials to stand on the steps of the Capitol and sing “God Bless America” together. But mostly, the pointless, powerless partisanship goes on, unmolested by our leaders’ memories of the day when Congressman took shelter from a then unknown-enemy.

America – for better or worse – is mostly the same as is was on Sept. 10, 2011. O sure, we now sing “God bless America” during the seventh inning stretch of Major League Baseball games, and patriotic expressions are more frequent then they were before we, as a nation, saw the Twin Towers collapse before our own eyes.

We take our shoes off at airports, and pay a bit more attention when the guy on the news says something about the Middle East.

But we haven’t changed that much. We still pay more national attention to reality TV than we pay to reality. Our students can name more entertainers than government leaders.

Our politicians still spend millions – actually it is now in the billions – to pay for intelligence-insulting television ads because they know enough Americans will believe that nonsense to make it worth the investment. Our energy policy has not changed; our education policy – even with all of its regulations, rules and lofty-sounding goals of leaving no child behind – has not improved test scores. And overall, as a nation, we generally expect to pay far less in taxes then we expect to receive in government services and benefits, while we blame the politicians for the deficit.

And not only that, but we now have to live in a world without Paul Harvey, Andy Griffith and Mike Royko, whose incredible talents helped us to see what’s right, what’s worth watching and what’s wrong with our society. Now, I fear, we can’t see any of that nearly as clearly as we once could, or should see it now.

Sometimes I worry that we didn’t let 9/11 change us as much as watching 3000 people vanish before our eyes should have.

Maybe we should have a National Holiday on 9/12. And maybe we should call it the National Day to Ask Why We Don’t Remember the Lessons of 9/11 Well Enough.