David Spates "Therefore I Am" Published Sept. 10, 2002

Sept. 11 should be a
national holiday -- maybe

Sept. 11 should be a national holiday. It's that simple.

Well, perhaps it's not that simple. First off, "holiday" is the wrong word. It brings to mind celebratory days at the beach and half-price sales at Clarence's Factory-Direct Mattress Outlet.

That's not what I'm going for.

No, "holiday" is definitely the wrong word.

We can call it a "day of remembrance" or a "day of mourning." Sept. 11 should not be thought of as a "holiday."

It seems as though I'm fighting as uphill battle on this issue. According to a recent CNN-Time poll, only about 44 percent of my fellow Americans agree that Sept. 11 should be a national "holiday." (That's CNN-Time's word, not mine.) Slightly more than half of us, 51 percent, say Sept. 11 should not be a national holiday.

What's the problem with a 9/11 holiday? I've heard people opposed to the idea express concerns that a Sept. 11 holiday would trivialize the impact and horror of that day. They say it would be destined, in a few years, to become little more than a three-day weekend from work and a promotional gambit for retailers.

You know something? They're probably right. We Americans are famous for letting important ideas deteriorate into flimsy lip-service. We talk the talk but often we don't walk the walk. For instance, we say we're supportive and appreciative of our war veterans, but when Memorial Day and Veterans Day roll around, you'll find most of us either cracking open another cold one or down at Clarence's comparing Serta prices. Our veterans deserve better than that.

That's why if we decide to make Sept. 11 a national holiday, we Americans must be committed to not let it turn into yet another meaningless holiday. That means Clarence must have the guts to close his doors that day. Buy your mattress on Sept. 12. It means we must have enough respect not to rearrange the calendar and "observe" the Sept. 11 holiday on, say, Sept. 10 so we can take Friday off and get a jump on the holiday traffic. It also means if Sept. 11 falls on a Saturday or Sunday, we don't bellyache to our employers that we should have Friday or Monday off since we're getting "cheated" out of a holiday.

If we can't collectively agree to these terms, count me out. I don't think it's too much to ask.

Another concern with officially marking Sept. 11 is that there are too many holidays on the calendar as it is. That's absolutely right. We don't need to add a holiday, so I'd like to suggest that we nix Columbus Day -- just yank it from October. The only people who pay attention to Columbus Day are the federal, state and local government employees anyway. Would any of us really miss it, apart from the government workers? I doubt it. Let's replace it with a day that has meaning for us. It's even during the same general time of year. (Columbus Day is the second Monday of October. I'll bet you didn't even know when it was. I didn't either. I looked it up.)

I'm not sure Chris Columbus is even worthy of a holiday. I don't want to turn this into an exercise in Columbus-bashing, but the guy thought he was in ASIA for cryin' out loud! Chris' so-called discovery happened more than 500 years ago, but historians can't agree if he was the first European (i.e. white dude) to visit North America. The Vikings and possibly the Irish missionaries may have been there before he. And if all of that wasn't enough to raise doubts about the relevance of Columbus Day, read the first few pages of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. It'll raise your eyebrows, I promise you. Finally, as far as 500-year-old acts of courage go, I say Copernicus' assertion that the sun is the center of the solar system was much bolder. It took guts to disagree with the pope in those days.

But we have some gutsy folks these days, too, don't we? In addition to memorializing the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, a national day of remembrance can also serve to honor the men and women who died trying to save just one more life. It would also distinguish people who put their lives on the line every time they go to work, whether they're responding to an attack on the World Trade Center or a tanker truck that jack-knifed on I-40. Some jobs deserve more applause than others.

A day to mark Sept. 11 seems justifiable to me, if we all agree to treat it with honor and respect. I'm sure even Clarence could get on board with that.

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David Spates is a Knoxville resident and Crossville Chronicle contributor whose column is published each Tuesday. He can be reached at davespates@chartertn.net.