9/11, The Day After or maybe it was 20 Years Later.

 A lot has been said this week about that feeling of unity on September 12, 2001. Where has it gone? What happened? Was it all a dream? Have we somehow lost our way?

I was teaching 4th grade in Manhattan and living in Brooklyn at that time and I do recall something akin to unity but I'm not sure that's really the right word. I do remember a sense of shared shock and horror at what we saw that day. I recall the growing family album of photos of the missing on posters that appeared on walls around the city and the tributes and alters in places like Union Square. I knew I was part of something larger than myself and felt a connection to those I saw everyday - we lived through something together. 

Was that unity? I remember one of my fellow teachers talking to us before we started the next school day shouting that we would be okay, that we would rise to this challenge because we were New Yorkers (dammit!) and I felt included in that crowd, but where did that feeling come from?

Was what we call unity the fact that we shared a horrific experience? Do people that survive a plane crash stay in touch and find ways to connect and work together? When I meet someone who was in New York or Washington DC these days I do feel a certain kinship, maybe unity, a shared experience but what should I expect from that?

I wonder if the media coverage is missing something here. Is the unity they speak of really more a shared trauma? 

What do we expect of that shared experience? 

We are living in a time when a minority of the country is actively fighting against the democracy the country was founded upon. We are living in a time when that minority is quite loud and has the backing of one of our political parties. How does that shared trauma work with the current challenges?

Does the unity felt in that traumatic moment mean I have to accept the position of those who are working to destroy democracy? Those who lived through that day share something unique and powerful but perhaps we expect too much from that feeling of unity.