DON'T PLAY THE PATRIOTIC MUSIC

9/11 was meant to be about our country. 

We've got to be careful not to let it be.

From Bergen, Norway - August 2011

I did not have a loved one killed by the heinous evil of September 11, 2001, but I was at Ground Zero  in the first flight that left Dallas for NYC afterwards. When I arrived in the city, I took the A-train; however, it was nothing like what Duke Ellington wrote. It was oppressively quiet. As I emerged from the subway station the air was thick with smoke and dust. I walked a few blocks and stood smelling the hideous decay. I did not cry. Instead I was furious and scared and speechless as I picked my way through the debris, reading the notes, seeing the flowers, and witnessing the damage that hate can do.

From Vigelands Parken, Oslo, Noway - August 2011

What was meant to be the beginning of a Holy War was instead a colossal crime by 19 deranged "religious" zealots. What did they want? They wanted us to be afraid, which we were. They wanted us to enter into warfare, a jihad (as they understood it), which many of us did. And I believe that thinking brings us into danger, spiritual danger.

Why should we not sing patriotic songs this Sunday? Why should we not drape this 10th anniversary in patriotic colors? Simply because it was not a Holy War that happened on 9/11. It was a colossal crime.

This is not about being unpatriotic. I am glad to be living here! This is my home, the land where I was born, fell in love, was educated, had children, bought a house, and had meaningful work. I love the United States, and I am the beneficiary of the freedom that we have here. No, my problem isn't about patriotism. My problem is using this time of deep mourning on this 10th anniversary to be about the United States, simply because that is exactly what these criminals want us to do.

Instead, why don't we take the A-train to our highest self? It's what I have been challenged with by the Church for my entire life: love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. That's what takes courage. In the midst of people pushing us to play their games of tribalism and revenge, let us mourn the loss of precious lives, and the bent we humans have for destruction. Let us turn the other cheek, not to be beaten down and terrorized, but to be subversively loving in the face of fear.