May 1, 2002: Heroes

For folks who've come in looking for my modest proposal re: the next U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, here it is. Enjoy.

Today is going to be a bit unusual for me, because there's only going to be one posting. Yesterday, Steven De Beste of USS Clueless sent me an email in which he explained that "in a sense I don't write [my blog]; it writes me." Today, Steven, I understand exactly what you mean by that.

My Heroes: Remembering Flight 93

There were a lot of heroes Sept. 11th, and one group touched me especially deeply. It wasn't the firemen, or the policemen - heroes all, to be sure. It was, instead, the (extra)ordinary people on a civilian jet. People who took matters into their own hands in the hope of saving others. People who died even as they succeeded.

Gay and straight, men and women, they all stood up together as Americans. They took a vote. They said their goodbyes. Then they charged...

And I don't think they've been given their proper due.

E Pluribus Unum

Every American kid should be reminded of these heroes, and remember. Their story speaks to the heart. More, it speaks to the heart of ideas like responsibility, and the virtue of a free people, and what it means for all of us to stand tall together. Flight 93 was virtue, civic duty and "E Pluribus Unum" kicked up about five notches. Flight 93 was 'the militia' as the Founders intended and envisaged it. Flight 93 was the best summation of what America really is, and what Bin Laden unleashed. Over eight months later, it's still the best.

Its wellspring was uniquely American. Its origins are more ancient.

"You do not know what freedom is," Herodotus reports a Greek saying to a Persian. "If you did, you would fight for it with bare hands if you had no weapons."

We know. We did. We will.

Every Passover, Jews are enjoined to regard themselves as if they, too, had gone out of Egypt in the Exodus. It's how we acknowledge our debt before G-d. It's how we help keep faith. In a war of terror, where every civilian is on the front lines, I submit to you that you might regard yourself as if you, too, were on Flight 93.

Sen. John McCain had this to say at Mark Bingham's eulogy:

"I never knew Mark Bingham. But I wish I had. I know he was a good son and friend, a good rugby player, a good American, and an extraordinary human being.... I wish I had known before September 11 just how great an honor his trust in me was. I wish I could have thanked him for it more profusely than time and circumstances allowed. But I know it now. And I thank him with the only means I possess, by being as good an American as he was."

These questions have been on my mind a lot over the past few months.

In Memoriam

According to the Washington Post, there's a makeshift memorial at the crash site that gets about 1,000 visitors daily. That's a start, I guess.

According to the this article from the New Haven Register, "Flight 93 Heroes Park" has been dedicated in Milford. Apparently, it's a lovely 37-acre tract of land. The emotion and gesture are lovely, too. And where is the lesson?

The fitting memorial I imagine for my heroes would not sit in one place, but in many places. It would be something that every American could hope to visit - and would be available outside America as well. In its forms, it would match the variety of those on the plane. Yet it would convey the same message. E Pluribus Unum: from out of many, one. It would not just remind, it would teach. Preferably by quiet example. As they did.

And it would be real. Not electrons - though the electronic networks that shape our society would play a role in building it, and spreading it, and talking about it. But the monuments would be real, physical, tangible. Just as the world beyond our monitors is real, physical, tangible.

Like the wreckage of a plane. Like the people left behind. Like the enemy that we face.

In my follow-up post, I'm going to put forth some ideas on what that memorial might be. Meanwhile, I invite your comments and responses.

Winds of Change FLT 93 Series

May 01: "Heroes"
May 06: "FLT 93: A Fitting Memorial..."
May 18: "FLT 93: The Legend Grows"
May 18: "FLT 93 and the Medal of Honor"