An open letter to Post 9/11 America

Hey, America: 

It surprised me last week to realize that you turned 18 years old.  Eighteen years since that tragic day.  I was listening to the radio.  One of several programs memorializing the anniversary.  An author that had recently published a book about the events that day commented that there are soldiers fighting in the wars that followed that had no personal recollection of them because they were too young or not yet born.  That this was the first war you, America, had been involved in where that could be said.  

I found that to be profound.  

It made me think about what you’re like right now.  A young adult in years.  And I remembered something that my dad did with me at your age.  He had a habit, a policy I’ll call it, of sitting me down and speaking to me when I reached certain important ages to point out how I’d changed, and how he was going to treat me differently as a result.  At 13, when I was officially a “teenager.”  At 16, when I was about to get my driver’s license.  And at 18, which was the shortest, and scariest, of the conversations we had.  

“Erick, your 18 years old now.  Legally, your a grown man.  I’m done.”  

I definitely had a double-take when he said that.  The conversation went on, though, where he detailed what he was willing to do for me, as long as I stayed in school and was working for a degree, and what he expected me to do if I stopped going to school (get a job, pay rent, help with the groceries, etc.).  

Looking back, I appreciated his talks with me.  It helped me to get set for what was coming.  And while I’m not your dad, America, I am a part of you.  And I do feel concern for you.  So, I’m going to take that role and tell you what I think you, at 18, should be doing.  

“Buck up.  Get a job.  Get out of the house.”  

By “buck up” I mean get over it.  I found out this week that the state of National Emergency that was created the day after you were born is STILL in effect.  It’s been renewed each and every year since the first 9/11 that WAS “9/11.”  And while I admit that there are dangers out there, and people willing to do terrible things to you, and me as a part of you, I question the idea of there being one, long continuous “Emergency” that we are responding to.  

It’s like having a neighbor whose alarm goes off in the morning that keeps ringing and ringing and ringing and ringing, never getting shut off.  Or a car alarm in a parking lot that doesn’t stop.  Does it really help someone keep their car from being broken into?  Is anyone even looking to see what is going on?  

But more than that, I think it explains the attitude you’ve taken on over the years, which has become more pronounced with time.  The outlook that every problem you see in the world looks like a nail, so your impulse is to reach for a hammer to put it back in place.  It’s one thing to be ready if an emergency takes place.  It’s another to be jumping at the slightest sound.  

Which brings me to the other piece of advice I gave you.  Get a job.  Or rather, get back to doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

You were the leader of the free world.  Or your predecessor was.  Your job was to gather the forces of civilization and point the way to a better future for everyone.  And while I know there’ll be people that will argue that you didn’t always put forth your best effort, and maybe you didn’t succeed as often as you needed to, the effort was there.  And people over the world recognized you for it.  They accepted the fact that there certain problems, disaster, emergencies, where only you could lead the way.  And they didn’t have to wait for you to do something, at least try to do something, about it.  

You’ve kinda given that up.  You still talk about being the most powerful, but power doesn’t equate to leadership, and it can be another example of thinking the hammer is the only tool in the toolbox.  You’ve lost connection to the fact that the world has adopted YOUR standards of behavior.  Of what is right and wrong.  You no longer see the influence you have over the world by how you handled yourself in the past.  Maybe it’s because you think it made you a target for what happened.  Maybe that alarm bell that’s been ringing for the past 18 years makes you jumpy.  The fact remains that if you’re not the one leading the way, then others (which I’ll not name here) will take the position, and they’ll be doing it for far more selfish reasons than you’ve done in the past.

Which leads me to “Get out of the House.”  There’s a world out there.  With friends and allies waiting for you, for us, to get our shit together.  And while they wait there are other parties taking advantage by extending their power and influence in the world.  Shutting yourself in at home, locking all the doors, shutting all the windows, building walls around the yard to make harder to get to us, won’t make us safer or stronger.  Helping to make the world safer will make us safer.  Supporting people’s rights in other places will make us stronger.  Taking in those who can’t survive where they come from will give them hope that all the promises we made with what we’ve done in the past are still true and can be made to happen.

That’s pretty much it.  I hesitate to publish this because there is a section of “My Fellow Americans” that will likely take offense, and these days disagreement can often equate to being identified as an enemy or traitor, someone that hates you, America, and needs to be punished for it.  I don’t hate you.  All my life I’ve loved and respected you.  But I have become disappointed in you in recent years.  Because I know you can be better.  Because you have been better, but aren’t living up to your potential because of the 18 year long alarm bell that’s still ringing in your head.  

If you need help getting there, I promise I’ll do what I can to help.