Chatterbox: Free to be our best

We all may be sick and tired of discussing America’s problems.
Well, we are, as a nation, pretty much coming apart at some of our seams. We are flirting with a frightening level of national unrest on topics that either should have been resolved, permanently, long ago, both legally and socially, or shouldn’t be issues at all save for the seeds of angst being sewn by malcontents and subversives.
Those of us who love this country for the uniqueness of living here and the strength of our population stand by her in her completeness. We don’t try to sift out the diversity of her people or strip her of that which paints her unique colors. When we are at our best, we are a beam of brilliant light. Even when we are breaking, we are the example much of the world looks up to and the nation too many world nations want to knock off that pedestal. We are that enviable.
Chatterbox has spoken often of various aspects of 9/11/01, America’s greatest domestic attack. We’ve talked about that instance in which ordinary people, most unknown to one another, took on risk and responsibility for each other. Strangers were running, rescuing, comforting, and protecting each another. As they fled a deadly situation together, helping one another, no one asked about religion, nationality, or political party. They lifted each other off the ground, out of the cancerous dust, and protected one another disregarding all danger. We mentioned one man, a Muslim, lifting another man who had been blinded by the dust out of the curb. “Come, brother,” he said, to the Hasidic Jew and, together, they ran arm in arm. That’s who Americans are when we are free to be our best.
The day of 9/11, in all its horror was, to most Americans and in the eyes of the world, America’s finest hour ... and America has had many a fine hour. Building doors leading to relative safety opened for everyone. People washed each others’ faces, shared water, cried together, limped together and carried each other to safety. No person was anything but American. No other characteristics mattered. American – the mere word gives me a thrill; together, we are a nationality whose only common characteristic is that we, or our ancestors, all adopted the same haven as our home ... and nothing more.
We’ve also talked about the Boat Lift, which was the spontaneous water rescue operation on 9/11 in New York City. The Boat Lift was a wholly citizen, impromptu response to a human crisis, a reflex from individuals, ordinary people, unbeknownst to one another, without a formal request by any part of any governing body, local or national.

Within minutes of realizing the only remaining way of safely getting hundreds of thousands of people stranded on the island of Manhattan was boats, the harbor was crammed with anything that could float. Amazing people came from everywhere, immediately, all with the same idea; most vessels were captained by volunteer owners who took it upon themselves to help our fellow Americans to safety, disregarding the peril.
Ultimately organized as fast as possible by the Coast Guard, asking no questions, the united immigrants and refugees of America and the descendants thereof saved 900,000 people in nine hours of completely voluntary, difficult and dangerous hardship.
That is who “we, the people,” are.
That was us wearing our “American,” being the America we are meant to be and showing the American heart that knows no color, no politics, no religion and no division. When we are that America we are truly our strongest community, that unbeatable team, that enviable nation and the rarest of gems. If anyone tries to make it sound corny or believes we only need to be that community of people when we are in the crosshairs of impending doom, they don’t merit our attention.
The separatist and inflammatory rhetoric being peddled as patriotism today is the lie that helps us identify the truth: that we are a unique nation created by all nationalities; that Americans are everyone, but an “American” is no one in particular. That’s what makes us great and what we must focus on, always.
Now, we must choose the America we want to belong to, and which Americans we’ll stand up and be counted with – they who will risk themselves for Americans without hesitancy or they who will tear this nation apart, preferring to watch it die in the name of the ghost who looks like them and thinks as they do.

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