What Happened to the Melting Pot?

September 11 is a sad date for Americans. Americans don’t like sad dates. This is a country that likes to celebrate greatness, success, achievement – anything that can typically be tied to an excuse to consume alcohol. Look at Memorial Day. This is a national holiday intended to remember our fallen heroes who gave their lives in defense of our country and its ideals. Today, it seems like it’s more of a marker for the beginning of summer and the first wave of big mega blockbuster movies.

My previous bout of unemployment began September 8, 2001. I was working for a dotcom that was well intentioned but spent way too much money on a poorly conceived infrastructure to provide a service that You Tube and Vimeo essentially offer for free. But on the plus side, I was being paid ridiculously because of the monopoly money that all dotcoms were playing with that came from angel investors who thought they were buying in on the next AOL. On the plus-plus side, I had a supervisor who was looking out for me and set me up with a severance package that quite frankly would not have happened had I been let go four days later. One of the home offices was three blocks from the World Trade Center.

I’ll never forget that morning. Lucas was a mere five months old and we were thriving in our new father-son bond thrust upon us by my wife’s need to increase the amount of shifts she worked as an RN to cover my lack of income. We were up around 6:30, I defrosted a bag of frozen breast milk, and we situated ourselves on the couch to scan for something to watch on the old hypnotizer box. I got to the Today Show and caught Matt Lauer saying something about a small plane hitting one of the towers. I watched to get more info and while he was blathering about some incorrect detail, clearly not paying attention to what was on the studio monitors, I saw the second plane come in from the right of the TV screen and plow directly into the second tower. Along with the rest of the nation, I was in shock over what I saw. How could this be happening? There is no way this could possibly be real. Yet it was. The third plane then hit the Pentagon (the fourth plane going down in Pennsylvania hadn’t quite been verified yet), and I called my mom, pronouncing, “We are under attack!”

Here we are, nine years later, and on this day that we should be in solemn remembrance of the events of that day, the lives lost, and the effects it had on our society – that our sense of freedom and security was rocked to its core – headlines and people’s attentions are dedicated to protests and potential acts of intolerance and ignorance. I can say with absolute certainty and conviction: This is completely wrong.

The devastation of September 11, 2001, was caused by a small group of evil, fear-mongering, misguided, desperate fanatics who represented a slightly larger network of like-minded people scattered across the Middle East. We were not attacked by Islam that day. Heck, I don’t even believe that we were attacked by true Muslims that day. That attack falls into the same category as the Nazi’s containment and persecution of Jews, Idi Amin’s execution of his political dissenters, the Janjaweed Militia’s hunt of non-Arab citizens in Darfur, Timothy McVeigh and his militia’s bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and the many, many violent acts of the Ku Klux Klan over the past 150 years.

So, while it is important to remember all those who tragically died nine years ago, I think it is more important to remember what it is about America that threatened these people so terribly that they conducted this mass execution: our freedom to express ourselves openly and our diverse citizenry.

The United States of America used to proudly describe itself as a melting pot. The Statue of Liberty and Golden Gate Bridge used to be recognized as shining monuments that welcomed those who were either cast off from their homes or looking for a better life here. You never hear that expression any more, "melting pot." It seems like Americans no longer want to embrace that this is a country built on many cultures and heritages. And a lot of people sure have forgotten the first and fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution.

So, while I do believe that September 11 should always be a somber (and sober) day of remembrance for Americans, I also feel that the sensibility of the day needs to be altered. First, September 11 needs to become a national holiday. I know it throws all sorts of labor issues out of whack by adding another paid holiday, but this is a national date of significance that should always be properly recognized and honored. Second, I think that September 11 needs to be a day where we re-embrace the melting pot ideal and have it be a true day of multiculturalism. Let’s celebrate who we are and where we come from and recognize our differences while also commemorating our commonality as Americans. It’s the very least we can do to truly honor those who perished nine years ago.

The United States of America is a melting pot. We are different. That’s what we always need to remember.