A Day of Service 11.09.2009

September 11th is Patriots day, a day of service in America. The connection to September 11th, 2001 is obvious I guess? No need to explain. In my new job I was ‘encouraged’ to take on a volunteer project for the day. As it turned out, we piggy-backed on another project, a park cleanup/city beautification event. I spent the day conflicted. Conflicted on many levels.

I like what I do for work. I like connecting communities, bringing people together, and being able to explore other identities through my job. So I have no problem with volunteerism, or even doing community service as a response / reflection to violence. But I don’t like tokenism. I’m also not a patriot of any nation: nationalism is a dangerous, violent and divisive emotion / ideology. The only time I get vaguely nationalistic is over soccer, but even so, I’ll never take to the streets in defense of a nation or national ethos. So the first conflict for me is that my job, by definition, is in service of a nation-state. But, I am not confronted with it on a daily basis, and I have enough freedom in my work, that I can bring my own ideas to the projects, ideas that are not Nationalistic in nature. I can work with critical multiculturalism in my mind as I approach something, etc...

But the larger conflict for me was /  is the token-istic nature of Patriot Day, and doing a beautification project on that day. I wandered round for over an hour picking up rubbish in the park and wondering why I was doing this? What does 11.9 mean to me? I wasn’t in this country when it happened, and I am repulsed by the Government response to the event. This response has caused the deaths of many more than were killed in the Towers. Is this a proportional response? Does it address the root cause of our conflict, the cause of the attacks? More over, how does my beautification of a city park have any reflection on the tragic events of 11.9 and those since? It doesn’t, is my conclusion. I have done nothing more than done the work of our Parks and Recreations Department for a few hours. We had no reflection on what this day means, 8 years later; there was no debate on appropriate responses; and there was little in the way of alternatives.

Perhaps this is partly my fault for not organizing the alternative, for encouraging a reflection, etc... But when I refused to write cards to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was given dirty looks. This is not a crowed, liberal though they are, that wants to debate the last 8 years, the meaning of Sept. 11, or the appropriate activities for today. No, we must clean, and not question. Certainly I wish America had just turned to its gardens, and to its own streets on Sept. 12, not to guns and credit cards; I wish the States had encouraged growth rather than death after the attacks, but they didn’t, and they, myself included, really need to talk about it.

I also don’t understand why do we need to set a day aside for this? If community service is a value we hold dearly, then why only do it once a year? The fact that we need to make a show out of this event, invite fancy people and small children, shows how shallow our regard for community work is. Hey, I’m not moralizing here, ‘cause I’m as lazy as the next guy. I only started doing community work because my jobs demanded it. It is like valentines day, if you love someone, you should treat them well and tell them how you feel everyday, not just on February 14th. The point here is just that we should be doing community work because we want to and think it is important, not just because 8 years ago some assholes flew planes into some of our buildings.

There is a further point, and that is one of perception, which is perhaps one of the most important elements. The city I live in has many problems, the least of which is the lack of rubbish bins in the park. So was a beautification activity really the best thing? How are the immigrant and refugee communities going to perceive this? We would rather clean a small park than spend a day with them? Many are here, after all, because we invaded their country... My points here are not meant to be Anti-American, though I understand that I cannot totally avoid it. I was glad to see people out on the streets today, people doing something together that didn’t involve national anthems and flag waving, I just wish we would do more of this, any and every day, not just as a memorial.