Happy holidays

Happy Sept. 11," the voice in my cell phone said.\nI paused, awkwardly. "That might be one of the most disturbing things I've ever heard," I replied.\nHappy Sept. 11? How did that turn "happy" in just three years?\nA friend of mine says Sept. 11 is a national holiday. How did I miss this? I had to look into it. Apparently, Sept. 11 was dubbed "Patriot Day" only months after the terrorist attack. On this holiday, the American flag is to be flown at half-staff.\nBut for some people, that just isn't enough. Or maybe they just didn't get the memo. A petition with more than 200,000 signatures calls for Congress and the president to declare Sept. 11 "Unification Day," to celebrate how getting the crap scared out of us united us with the rest of the world -- for a few months.\nSo why all the confusion about Sept. 11 being a holiday? What about that day do we want to celebrate? Was it the triumph of the American will to keep going to work and go shopping? Was it okay for one week to walk up to a total stranger and give them a hug? Did we finally learn that we had to exercise caution with our foreign policy? Or were we merely liberated from the court of international opinion?\nMaybe Sept. 11 is "happy" because it's become an excuse. The White House can do whatever it wants because telling it what not to do would let the terrorists win, or something. I could see how that might make some people happy.\nDon't get me wrong, I don't hate America, I just love excuses. They're funny.\n"Mr. Hiester, your paper was due two days ago."\n"Shush! Remember Sept. 11!"\nIndeed, it's a fantastic excuse. If only I was as lucky as the Bush administration.\nBut what if Sept. 11 really is more than an excuse and becomes a national holiday? What would it be about? I would like to think that it would be a day to remember all the people who've given their life to serve their country: from brave New York firefighters, to our soldiers overseas, all of whom put their lives on the line regardless of whether they wanted to or not. If commitment means dedicating the entirety of one's self to something, these men and women are the very definition of the word and deserve to be honored.\nOr maybe we could remember the innocent civilians whose lives were taken that September morning; they were just regular people like you and me who had an unfortunate date with history. Everyone could take time to pause and reflect upon their own mortality and reaffirm the beauty of their fragile lives. It could be a nice holiday.\nThe problem is, America is really bad at holidays where we're supposed to remember dead people. Most of the time we distort the holiday beyond comprehension. Santa Claus? The Easter Bunny? I think Christ would be turning in his grave if he was still in it. What about the way we send silly "I love you" notes to commemorate the beheading of St. Valentine? Or the way we get drunk on St. Patrick's Day? Do we seriously remember any of these people? Sept. 11 would become the day when young children smash model planes into buildings so they can scurry to grab the "freedom candy" from shattered wreckage.\nIf we don't distort these holidays, we celebrate them by not remembering anything at all. We go to big movie premieres on Memorial Day weekend or skip town for Veteran's Day. There's no point in making Sept. 11 just another day off work.\nNo, perhaps the most honorable way to remember Sept. 11 would be to leave it to the historians. Remembering things is what they do. Then we can keep on doing what we do. After all, if we didn't keep doing what we do, wouldn't the terrorists win?