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Today marks a solemn occasion in our history, and begging the indulgence of my small but hardy band of loyal followers (hi Mom!), I’m going to depart from my usual banter on marketing, PR and all things mortgage.

I’m seeing a lot of messages commemorating the tragic events of September 11, 2001 in the world of social media today (and have posted a few myself):  “Remember 9/11/01.”  “Thank you to our servicemen and women.”  “Don’t ever forget.”  These are all appropriate and worthy statements.

But, unfortunately, I think that we as a people have forgotten.  Not the images of the towers collapsing, or of the brave rescue people rushing into the disaster.  Not the images of flags waving, rescue workers atop mountains of rubble or tearful and shocked people holding candlelight vigils.  No, I think as a nation, we won’t be forgetting that for a long time.

But I also recall experiencing a strange, almost surreal atmosphere in the weeks after September 11, 2001.  Nationwide, there was unity.  We were all suddenly Americans.  We were suddenly vulnerable.  We suddenly needed more than our jobs and credit cards.  We were aware that we were a society of people.   Not Republicans or Democrats.  Priorities were, if for the moment, rearranged.  Chandra Levy and reality TV were put into their proper perspective (with all due respect to the family of Ms. Levy).  And, for just a moment, we were civil.  We were jolted out of our preoccupations and preconceptions, and we were forced to take in a world where there were more people than just ourselves.

Maybe I’m just remembering things the way I want to.  But I seem to recall a bit less rancor in the discussions taking place in America for much of the remainder of 2001…and not just on The Hill.  It seemed I was cut off in traffic by an Obliviot (apologies to Mike Straka) a little less often for a while.  And, for just a moment, it was acknowledged (if not entirely accepted), that disagreement does not always have to amount to conflict or rancor.

So maybe I have it wrong.  But I think everyone would agree, no matter where they land on politics, religion or philosophy, that as a nation, we’ve lost some of that in the past 8 years.  Witness a debate on public policy that has taken on the color and hue of a Jerry Springer rerun.  Witness everyday interactions between people more interested in massaging their iPhones than saying “excuse me” to the person they’ve just trampled over in a public place while doing so.  Witness the absolute fixation we’ve developed with assigning the blame, rather than solving a problem.  Witness what may have become a core belief that not only will we as a people refuse to sacrifice, but we may even refuse to be inconvenienced. 

We’ve fallen a long way from the unity—if even temporary—we experienced on 9/12/2001.  So my plea to you, here on September 11, 2009, is not just to remember the fallen heroes and victims of New York, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, PA today.  They most certainly deserve your thoughts.  But I’d also ask, as we continue to wade through the morass of what remains of our civil discourse, that we remember the living as well.  Let’s try a dialogue, instead of a diatribe, for a change.