In American tradition, most classic celebrations are those of religious significance and political power. We all know Christmas, Halloween and Memorial Day, but we tend to forget that other days mark events that have had lasting power in the political sphere.
Last week, the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War passed without much public notice from the former President George W. Bush and the (thankfully) former Vice President Dick Cheney. The chief authors of American foreign policy for eight years had no comment on the war they manipulated into existence.
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was instrumental in the implementation of the Iraq War at the highest levels, tweeted a completely incorrect characterization of the Iraq War: "10 yrs (sic) ago began the long, difficult work of liberating 25 mil Iraqis. All who played a role in history deserve our respect & appreciation," neglecting to mention that Iraqis were "freed" by $3.9 trillion in U.S. tax dollars and the ultimate price of 6,656 service members who died.
The anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is yet another date that will live in infamy throughout American history. As a nation, soul searching and heartfelt remembrance overcomes any other story to help us heal 11 years later.
The faraway wars still being fought receive less attention than the heart-wrenching tragedy that befell our nation, though these events were connected seamlessly in the media as a reason for the war in the first place.
Another politically charged anniversary was the passing of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, which turned 3 years old Saturday.
People are still furious about its passage (though they support many of its provisions in the abstract). This anniversary, too, passed without much notice. Even I had to look it up to see exactly when the candles were blown out.
Perhaps it is the nature of American politics or just our culture in general. We value the transient cat videos and other memes and leave the hard thinking to someone else. We place extreme importance on certain dates in our history, such as Independence Day, but leave other landmark dates to the history books.
On the other hand, maybe we don't "soul search" in terms of years. Perhaps it takes decades to find the true meaning in an anniversary. Maybe we need time for our culture to shift, and we will collectively find the meaning of the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War.
This all seems a little bit hit or miss for a culture to just hope to find out the meaning of important events, but we live in such a diverse nation with protection for minority opinions.
These two factors work in favor of the nation, because we have the power to think freely and find out what each event means. We might just need a trigger or push to get to that point.
Reach the columnist at peter.northfelt@asu.edu or follow him at @peternorthfelt
