Let's Honor 9/11 on Sunday ... Then Move On

EJ Dionne argues that our future depends on us looking forward, not back
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 8, 2011 11:29 AM CDT
Let's Honor 9/11 on Sunday ... Then Move On
In this Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, rubble and ash fill lower Manhattan streets after two hijacked airliners were crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York, collapsing them.   (AP Photo/Boudicon One)

EJ Dionne will give us our Sept. 11 anniversary—this time. But after we honor the 10th anniversary of those who died in the attacks, "we need to leave the day behind," he argues in the Washington Post. "The last decade was a detour that left our nation weaker, more divided, and less certain of itself," and if we, as a country, continue to place 9/11 at the center of who we are and where we're going, we'll lose. Because America's future does not solely rest upon who emerges victorious from the war on terror.

"We know now, as we should have known all along, that American strength always depends first on our strength at home," but we pushed this "common sense" knowledge into the background, instead letting ourselves be led by our fears as we tried to reorder the rest of the world. "While we worried that we would be destroyed by terrorists, we ignored the larger danger of weakening ourselves by forgetting what made us great," Dionne concludes. The best way we can strengthen our nation is to look forward, not back. (More E.J. Dionne stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X