What Have We Learned About Ourselves Since 9/11? Not Enough

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Sep 10, 2021

And the memory feels particularly poignant two decades later, as our Congress seems to be increasingly unable to come together on much of anything, including a song.

After all, those were the same Capitol steps over which a massive mob of disgruntled supporters of then-President Donald Trump would storm in a bloody but futile attempt to stop the certification of Trump’s elected successor, Joe Biden.

All of which raises another old question: Do we Americans now need to have the unifying force of a deadly terrorist enemy to bring our elected representatives together across party lines?

The Jan. 6 insurrection turned out to be another form of performance art. How else do you describe an angry mob that answered Trump’s bogus “Stop the Steal” call by storming into the Capitol and trashing the place without showing much knowledge of what they would do when they got inside?

And in the aftermath, despite having their lives endangered by the chaos, Congress quickly polarized afterward back to party lines, as to whether a commission to investigate the savage assault on our election process is even necessary.

Much has been written — and remains to be written — about the terrorism of Sept. 11, the long trail of events that led up to it and the actions yet to be done to prevent it from happening again.

We need just as thorough of an examination of the deadly performance art that erupted on Jan. 6, to show how terrorism is not something that only happens overseas.

And while we investigate those who may be conspiring to rip us farther apart as a nation, we also need to take a new look at the values that pull us together. I still believe the differences that pull us Americans apart are outnumbered by the unifying values that we share in common — if we give them a real chance, not just a performance.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)