Last week, I ended the 9/11 10th anniversary show with my alert, leaving you with my call to action for us – that we as a generation, start and lead a movement to reignite the cooperation and respect for each other, regardless of race, religion, or political party, that we displayed in the weeks and months following that day.

This hit a cord, because I received a number of responses, most, unfortunately, sounding not too hopeful.   Comments like “You say we’re so powerful, but we’re not” to “I agree, and I’ll try, but I don’t believe it will do much good….” 

To these, and all my fellow Boomers who still don’t believe that we can, once again, influence major change, I say this: I’ll start with the most obvious – you are as powerful as you believe you are – if you think of yourself as powerless, you render yourself so – but it doesn’t mean you don’t have the capacity to be a powerful influence if you choose to exert it.  Which we did in our youth, so we have the experience.  We fought for, and won, significant gains in women’s rights and improvements in water and air quality (remember the river in Cleveland that was so polluted it actually caught fire in 1969?), enactment of laws that prohibit discrimination, and hey, if you and your spouse lived together before you got married, that’s thanks to our generational determination to make it socially acceptable. 

We have a proven track record for making big changes in this country – in fact, we have had the greatest societal impact of any other generation in the nation’s history, period.  But, OK, if that doesn’t convince you, how’s this.  It took only 56 men to get this country started (the number in the Second Provincial Congress, better known as the Continental Congress); and if they had felt as you do…that we’re not capable of getting something important done, there would be no United States of America. 

So, Boomers, if you believe that being respectful of each other is just the right thing to do, that the loss of civility is the rot that is causing our national house to crumble, then join the movement. 

I promise, example is the best way to make important things happen.

How vividly do you remember those days and weeks immediately following 9/11?  Did you make sure your flags were prominently displayed?  Did you feel both angry, and humbled?  Most importantly, did you feel a deep sense of connectedness to your fellow Americans, regardless of race, religion, or political party?

For quite a while, months in fact, after we were attacked, unity through a heightened civility with each other, was our way of showing just how great a nation we are – we chose to show the world that we the people of the United States would come together, be good to each other, respond to our crisis by strengthening our bond to our fellow citizens.

It went beyond letting the car into your lane rather than cutting off your fellow driver; it was a profound understanding that if we didn’t stick together, we were allowing those who wanted to destroy us – succeed. 
Because, after all, just as President Lincoln implored his fellow Americans during our civil war, so we seemed to intuitively comprehend in those days after 9/11/2001: a house divided against itself cannot stand.

Ten years later, we’ve not just lost that sense of unity, that determination to work together to make things whole again – we’ve gone to the opposite extreme.  We’ve become mean, our political discourse reduced to name calling and demonizing people with ideas or positions other than our own; we have become a house divided.

So today, on the 10th anniversary of the day we were viciously and shockingly attacked by people who hate us, I ask you, my fellow Boomers, to start yet another social movement – something we do so well.  I’m asking that we start a conscious and concerted movement to reignite mutual respect whether or not we may agree, replace venom with virtue, in essence, make civility cool.

We Boomers still run this nation; with our vast number as well as our wallets, as heads of corporations, as the majority in both houses of Congress.  We can make this happen.  Remember how you felt after 9/11/2001 – how we all treated each other – and make it so once again.