Reflections on Patriot Day
On the 25th anniversary of the September 11, I’m inspired by a quote from a young adult fiction writer, to my own surprise:
“What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met.” — David Levithan
These words break through the noise, because the focus is on true empathy for those directly impacted. Never forget that something that happened to 3,000 people in New York, DC and Pennsylvania impacted more than 300 million people across all 50 states and territories. It felt like it happened to all of us.
Empathy is not a new radical idea, but a key foundational value in building the United States of America as a nation. It is a principle laid out in the in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution:
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
As we mark this somber anniversary, we remember not only the lives lost, but celebrate the compassion that still connects us in the aftermath. It is how we honor the idea of America, itself.
