This past
Sunday was the fifteenth anniversary of the attacks on New York’s twin towers,
the Pentagon, and (failed) congress. This is always a poignant day in the US,
and a chance to remember the victims and much more besides.
What has
been great about how the 9/11 legacy has developed is that it has become a day
of service. Volunteers everywhere choose that date to do something to help
others. I’m not really sure how or even why that started – perhaps it came out
of some linkage of first responders to service, or maybe simply a wish to do
something on the day. But it has become a good tradition, and many Americans
show themselves at their generous best each time to anniversary comes around.
The other
side of it is less good, as the nation uses 9/11 to glorify the military and
its global dominance and talks of enemies and revenge. This year the
anniversary came on the first day of the NFL season, unfortunately, and the
games were surrounded by patriotism dressed up in flags, military uniforms and
implicit threats to imagined enemies. The NFL does some of this even on normal
days, selling itself somehow as a militarily patriotic institution.
I sort of
don’t mind this aggressive patriotism, it passes over my head, but I do get
angry when in the same breath the commentators refer to teams as world
champions and games as world finals. This is having it both ways – Americans
can portray the NFL as a global game (somehow) and display it for a global
audience, or as a domestic game with domestic symbolism, but not both at the
same time.
The excuse
for the world champion description is that Baseball’s playoff finals were
originally sponsored by a newspaper called the World, who labeled it World
Series. The name outlasted the sponsorship, and has lazily drifted to a
completely different meaning and to other sports. At least in major league
Baseball there is one Canadian team playing – the NFL cannot even boast that.
At any US
sporting event, there is likely to be a national anthem sung, or another
patriotic song such as God Bless America, often woefully. Crowds generally
spontaneously stand and remove headgear, which I suppose is impressive. And I
can’t complain too much, they still play God Save the Queen in some British theatres
before performances.
So it is an
interesting choice by Colin Kaepernick, a fading NFL player, to start a new
type of protest by ostentatiously sitting or kneeling during the national
anthem. His protest is against unequal treatment of people of colour, which he
says debases what the anthem stands for. The protest has spread, though so far
not out of control, with some other players copying him or raising a clenched
fist instead.
The protest
has caused confusion among pundits, which has potentially created the desired
effect of highlighting the cause. Many find it unpatriotic and disrespectful of
the military, especially on a day such as 9/11, but most respect the right to
protest, sneakily suggesting that it is not a good choice of method, or that he
would be better served to seek solutions rather than merely complain. But great
social changes have not generally come about by politely complaining. It will
be interesting to see how this develops, and it might yet play a role in the
upcoming elections.
For me, the
other noteworthy juxtaposition on this 9/11 was the fact that it came on a
Sunday, one where the Christian Gospel included the parable of the Prodigal
Son. On a day when more Americans than usual will have attended Church, this
will have posed challenges and opportunities to preachers throughout the land.
The
Prodigal Son is a great parable, and also one amenable to many different
interpretations and messages. The basic meaning is clear, that God’s mercy is
infinite, and it is never too late to repent. But beyond that things are less
clear. Do are we really like the father in the story, or indeed the like the
other characters featured in the Gospel, a widow finding a lost coin or a
shepherd leaving his flock to search after a stray sheep? If so, is that only a
good thing? What about the elder son, who resents the special treatment of his
brother, having toiled without blemish himself? Why might the second son have
behaved so badly? And with whom should we identify and learn, the father or
either of the sons?
It is rich
material. I regretted going to our own local Catholic Church and not to the
Episcopal St. Bart’s in Manhattan, which organised a special 9/11 service and
where the preachers are invariably courageous. Our priest did highlight the elder
son, but claimed that most of us would not act as the protagonist did with
sheep and coins and forgiveness of errant offspring. I am not so sure, I think
most of us do focus on fixing a problem at the expense of protecting a strong
point, because our nature makes us and because the pleasure of turning
situations around is so great. Our priest linked the exceptional mercy of God
to the pain of those still suffering after 9/11, concluding that there was
always hope.
I expect at
St. Bart’s they were braver, and I wonder about how many other preachers were
too. The key character is the elder son. While I have many times behaved like
the prodigal son and been painfully aware of it, and sometimes behaved like the
father for good or bad reasons, I have nearly always behaved like the elder
son, often unawares. I guess most of us are the same.
It is
significant that it is the elder son that loyally does his duty but resents his
lack of adequate recognition and the special treatment of his errant brother.
In traditional societies, even today, the elder son is the privileged one. He
inherits most of the land, gets the best schooling, has first choice of wife
and is generally well looked after. I am an elder son. Our risk is that we
somehow treat these privileges as expectations, or even start to feel that
somehow we have earned them, and have to defend them. Then we can sit on our
high horses and judge others. Instead we should be counting our blessings,
seeking to serve and share, and looking to improve.
The elder
son can be analogous to anyone born to advantage. That’s most of us, folks! It
is anyone white, or male, or straight, or born to a stable family or a family
of adequate means, or of a beneficial nationality, or living in a time of
relative peace. How often do we count those blessings, seek to serve and share,
and look to improve? How often do we instead become defensive and judgemental
of others? Listening to the US election campaign, I’d say too often – Clinton
supporters as well as Trumps, especially if we were not repelled by her recent
condemnation of his supporters as deplorable. Our reactions to Colin Kaepernick
might betray something similar. As Europeans, our treatment of the migrant
crisis certainly does.
On 9/11,
the bravest might take the analogy one step further. Of course it is a time to
mourn the dead and laud the first responders, and perhaps it is a step too far
to forgive the perpetrators. But, as a nation, the US reacted to 9/11 in the
role of the elder son, defending unearned privileges and exacting brutal
revenge towards innocent people. There has been precious little evidence of
counting blessings, seeking to serve and share globally, or looking to improve.
9/11
offered a chance to take a growing perspective as well as a mourning one. In
his way, Colin Kaepernick and his cohorts nudged us in that direction. The
Gospel of the day, if we cared to reflect deeply enough, screamed at us to take
the wider perspective. I can only hope that a few brave preachers took the
chance to help their congregants to do so.
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