Could the U.S. still pull together like we did after 9/11?

It should not take a national tragedy like 9/11 to pull all American citizens back together for a common purpose.

Yet, most of the time, these days, we allow national TV pundits - who clearly have their own agendas - to divide us.

It is not good for our society, nor is it good for our country’s national security, to allow national politics to dominate the soundtrack of our lives.

The 24/7 national TV propaganda that we get from the competing political pundits always touts a winner and a loser and someone to blame and depending on which major TV station you’re watching you can always guess which way the national “opinion’’ will be slanted.

Don’t let the rich and powerful TV and social media kingpins have their way. Question everything you hear and only believe half of what you hear and don’t let anyone tell you that we are not a country based on law and order. 

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Note: The article that follows was written by Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title “Ode To America’’ in the Romanian newspaper “News of the Day’’ not long after Sept. 11, 2001.

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Ode To America

Why are Americans so united?

They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color!

They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.

On 9/ll, the American tragedy turned 300 million people into a hand put on the heart.

Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers.

Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about.

Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag.

They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing: God Bless America!

I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down 100 floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being?

Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes.

And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy.

What on earth unites the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their history? Their economic power? Money?

I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles.

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Is the U.S. so divided now that we couldn’t pull together again like we did 20 years ago?

I agree with the  Romanian writer’s assessment that only freedom can work  such miracles.