When the planes hit the Twin Towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2011, I was en route to, then at, Tampa International Airport for my flight back to Atlanta. With other family members I had just celebrated my Mom's 85th birthday in Lakeland, Fl -- about 36 miles from the major airport. Tampa International is just a few miles for the US Central Command Headquarters, and I knew that, as America was under attack. Yes, I was tense and worried; the airport lay under lockdown with every single plane standing still. It was bizarre.
What did I do? I called my Mom, of course, and was amazed at her response. "Oh, honey, don't worry; we'll get through this. After all, we've gotten through so much already" (Depression, World War II, Korean War, civil rights upheaval, and more).
And, as bad as it all seemed, we did get through it. I stayed at the airport for three days hoping for a flight out when it became clear that wasn't going to happen any time soon. So, I caught a cab from the airport to the Greyhound Station, to bus back to my home in Atlanta. Oh, the Muslim driver and I had an interesting conversation on the way; he told me he was scared silly to be a Muslim at that time, and I commiserated, knowing how it felt to be unjustly singled out.
Well, we're in dire straits again, facing the threat of democracy's demise from a President who seems increasingly anti-American. While my Mom's gone on to her heavenly reward, the reassuring voice today comes from Harvard-educated Prof. Heather Cox Richardson, who teaches political history at Boston University.
"History suggests the game is not yet lost", she said. "Three times before, in the 1850s, the 1890s, and the 1920s, oligarchs took over the American government and threatened to destroy democracy. In each case, they overreached, and regular folks took back their government."
Now it's time for us all to take back our government and values, and to become real America again. Real America is diverse, patriotic, hard-working, courageous and persevering. We don't whimper and whine when there's work to be done, and Lord knows, work needs to be done now, in helping people to register for the vote and, in November, to getting them to the polls to vote America back again. Let's do this together, folks; it's the American way!
