Greater Love Day 2008
I can't believe it's September 11 already. Time for my annual Greater Love Day post.
On September 4, 2002, President Bush proclaimed September 11 as "Patriot Day." Fortunately, virtually no one seems to use that idiotic designation; when you say 9/11, everyone knows what you mean. Still, every year, just thinking about it makes me grind my teeth. Nothing that happened on September 11, 2001, good or bad, had anything to do with patriotism. The name "Patriot Day" is a perfect symbol of the cynical use made of 9/11 by Bush and his cronies over the past seven years. It represents the empty "patriotism" that glorifies one vision of one country at the expense not only of other countries but also of its own citizens.
If there is anything worth glorifying about the events of September 11, it's love. The people who did the things we admired on that day, and the days afterwards - the firefighters, the police officers, the airplane passengers, the rescuers, the chaplains, even, God bless his heart, Rudy Giuliani, as well as all the others I'm forgetting to remember right now - were showing their love for their communities, their fellow humans. Their friends, because that day, that week, when something awful brought us together, we were all friends. That's why I think of 9/11 as "Greater Love Day," and why I like to post this verse from the Biblical book of John (this year's version is from the New Revised Standard Edition):
John 15:13
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
As the NYFD slogan says, "All gave some - some gave all." I'm grateful that not all who gave of themselves on 9/11, and afterwards, had to lay down their lives. I'm grateful to those who died and to those who lived. And I'm thinking about the verse that precedes the "greater love" verse, John 15:12: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Love like that isn't easy. Often it doesn't even seem possible. But it's always worth honoring. And, far more than empty "patriotism," it's worthy of our aspiration.
On September 4, 2002, President Bush proclaimed September 11 as "Patriot Day." Fortunately, virtually no one seems to use that idiotic designation; when you say 9/11, everyone knows what you mean. Still, every year, just thinking about it makes me grind my teeth. Nothing that happened on September 11, 2001, good or bad, had anything to do with patriotism. The name "Patriot Day" is a perfect symbol of the cynical use made of 9/11 by Bush and his cronies over the past seven years. It represents the empty "patriotism" that glorifies one vision of one country at the expense not only of other countries but also of its own citizens.
If there is anything worth glorifying about the events of September 11, it's love. The people who did the things we admired on that day, and the days afterwards - the firefighters, the police officers, the airplane passengers, the rescuers, the chaplains, even, God bless his heart, Rudy Giuliani, as well as all the others I'm forgetting to remember right now - were showing their love for their communities, their fellow humans. Their friends, because that day, that week, when something awful brought us together, we were all friends. That's why I think of 9/11 as "Greater Love Day," and why I like to post this verse from the Biblical book of John (this year's version is from the New Revised Standard Edition):
John 15:13
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
As the NYFD slogan says, "All gave some - some gave all." I'm grateful that not all who gave of themselves on 9/11, and afterwards, had to lay down their lives. I'm grateful to those who died and to those who lived. And I'm thinking about the verse that precedes the "greater love" verse, John 15:12: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Love like that isn't easy. Often it doesn't even seem possible. But it's always worth honoring. And, far more than empty "patriotism," it's worthy of our aspiration.