Remember lessons learned after 9/11

Most of us who are old enough to be able to do so can remember what we were doing when the world stopped turning 20 years ago one Tuesday morning.

When I walked in the Daily American Republic that morning, I was expecting a relatively normal day. I had covered a Mules softball game the day before and planned to sit down and write my game story.

Then one of photographers at the time, Linda Cheek, walked in and announced that an airplane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. At first, we thought it was a strange accident — then another airplane hit the second tower and we knew it was no accident.

Some of us were at work. Some of us were on the road, either headed to work or somewhere else. Some of us were at home eating breakfast. But all of us were shocked and horrified when we heard that terrorists crashed two airplanes into each tower of the World Trade Center in New York City and another plane into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Almost 3,000 people lost their lives that day and America hasn’t been the same since.

But in the midst of those dark days — some of the darkest days in American history — something amazing happened. A country where people were still divided in the wake of a close, controversial presidential election less than a year earlier put aside their differences for a little while and came together. We prayed together, we cried together and most of all, we stood together. For a short time, the United States of America was truly united.

Over the last 20 years, it has been said we should “never forget” — and we shouldn’t. But let us also remember what we learned in the days following that dark day in 2001.

One, we learned to look past our differences to come together for the good of the country. Instead of focusing on the things that divide us, we focused on what we had in common — something that is sorely needed now in this era of hyper-partisanship. Whether we are Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative or whatever, it is safe to say we all love our country and that we want what’s best for it, even if we sometimes differ on what its best exactly is.

Two, we learned not to stereotype. While the 9/11 attacks were the work of radical Islamic terrorists, we did not buy into the rhetoric that “all Muslims are terrorists.” Even President George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, spoke against that line of thinking.

“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war,” Bush said in a speech he gave shortly after 9/11.

Finally, we learned that we are at our best when we are united. We are at our best when we look past each other’s differences to come together united as one country. We are not at our best when merely belonging to a different political party is grounds for hatred. We are not at our best when we stereotype and label those who are different than us. And we are certainly not at our best when we rejoice in mistreatment of those who do not share our views.

As we look back on 9/11 over the next 20 years and beyond, let us take these lessons to heart and remember that whether we are Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, liberals, white, black, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, atheist or whatever, we are all Americans.

Mike Buhler is a staff writer for the Daily American Republic. Contact him at mbuhler.dar@gmail.com.