Patriotism: Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet

Twenty years ago, Americans made a solemn vow to never forget the people who died during the terrorist attacks that occurred on the morning of September 11, 2001. A year later, a congressional resolution was introduced that designated September 11 as a National Day of Mourning. It was called Patriot Day.

I absolutely support the idea of keeping alive the memory of the nearly 3,000 innocent civilians and first responders who died that fateful day. The heroes who sacrificed their lives in service of their fellow Americans on 9/11 deserve more than a holiday, they should be immortalized in poems, songs, statues, and history books. 

Patriot Day was conceived as a day to mourn the loss of those heroes and victims. It was never meant to become an annual occasion to retraumatize Americans by forcing us to rewatch the graphic and horrifying deaths of thousands of our fellow human beings.

 

I vividly recall seeing the second plane smash into the World Trade Center live as it happened while watching television coverage of the first crash. My co-workers thought we were watching a replay of the first plane, but I knew immediately that we had just witnessed the deaths of hundreds of people on live TV. I cannot put into words the horror and fear that I felt at that moment. And I couldn’t forget it if I tried.

Every year I relive that trauma all over again when news outlets and TV stations show the all-too-familiar images of the planes smashing into the towers, billowing black smoke blowing over Manhattan, and the massive clouds of dust and ash created by the collapsing buildings. Audio of terrified passengers in the doomed jetliners is replayed, photos of desperate men and women leaping to their deaths from the burning towers are displayed, and video of smoldering wreckage in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon is shown again and again and again.

I am confident that I am not the only one who is retraumatized by this process every year. I am also convinced that the people who died that day would not want us to be subjected to rewatching their horrific murders over and over again. 

Funerals are often paired with celebrations of life, and I think a day of mourning should also be a day of celebration. We should be celebrating the lives of the people we lost that day instead of torturing ourselves by dwelling on their deaths. 

Maybe it’s time to rethink what we mean by “Patriot Day”. To do that, we need to reflect on what it is to be a patriot.

  

When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, there was an ad campaign for Chevrolet that featured a catchy jingle that repeated the phrase, “Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet”. The song became one of the most memorable and effective jingles in the history of advertising, and nearly fifty years later, a love for baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet is synonymous with a love for America. If a patriot is someone who loves his or her country, then someone who loves baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet must be a true American patriot indeed.

Last weekend, instead of rewatching and reliving the trauma of 9/11, I observed a few moments of silence to remember those innocent souls who were lost twenty years ago. Then I carried on with my life in what I think was the most patriotic way possible.

First, I went to the store and bought an apple pie and a container of vanilla ice cream. For three straight days, I ate pie a la mode for lunch. I also ate a hot dog, the right way—the American way, with yellow mustard and absolutely no ketchup. I watched a lot of baseball (and football and boxing, too). And I entered my 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS in the Ashland Fall Festival car show where I won a first-place trophy for “Best 1970 or Newer Muscle Car”. It was a wonderful, patriotic weekend.

The people who died on 9/11 were regular folks like you and me. They had families, jobs, fears, and ambitions. They were also patriots. They loved baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, Chevrolet, and the good old U.S. of A. There’s no doubt in my mind that they would have approved of the way I observed Patriot Day this year.

I hope that next year, and every year after, my fellow Americans will join me in honoring the people we lost on 9/11 by celebrating their lives—and living ours to the absolute fullest. What could be more patriotic than that?