Will We Ever Look Back at the Pandemic the Way We Look Back at September 11?

Is such a commemorative date possible?

With the possible exception of one of the former Presidents broadcasting a horrifying pay-per-view telecast of elder abuse, the remembrances of the 20th anniversary of September 11 this past weekend were tasteful, restrained and moving. (No Fleshlight Tweets this year.) It was a reminder of not only how horrible they would have been had the November election turned out differently than it did but also of how much value there is in having such memorials and anniversaries. I read many reflections and perspectives on September 11 this weekend — I wrote one myself — and they really did help: It was a reminder that Never Forget is more than a platitude: It is increasingly becoming a sacred mantra.

But, of course, September 11 is just one of the two global catastrophes of the last 20 years: We’re still living through the second one right now. (The worse one, it’s becoming increasingly clear.) A pandemic lacks the set contours of a terrorist attack: It is less obvious when it begins, when it’s at its worse, and, most of all, when it ends. So how will we commemorate it someday? What date will be our excuse to look back?

It will be far more complicated to do so, whenever we figure that out. One of the common statements during 9/11 memories was that our mourning should remind us that we are all together, that the country should be united. This is much easier to do on September 11 anniversaries, because we really were united back then, if just for a little while. Eleven hours after the attacks, Congress members of both parties gathered together on the steps of the Capitol and sang “God Bless America.”

Needless to say, it is impossible to imagine such a thing now. It is easier to have calls for unity when you are looking back on an event where there actually was unity. How could anyone look back on the pandemic 20 years from now and think there was anything united, or anything we could look upon with much pride, at all? The very…