Rescue Me. Rescue Us.

Our post-9/11 nation is just as wounded, just as changed and just as messy and real as the firefighters depicted on Denis Leary’s FX drama Rescue Me.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Rescue Me, the show centers around a group of firefighters and the messiness of their lives in a post-9/11 New York City. Main character Tommy Gavin (Leary) is coping with the loss of his cousin Jimmy, a fellow firefighter, in the 9/11 attacks, a divorce from his high school sweetheart and scads of other sorted personal and family drama. Tommy is regularly visited by the ghost of his dead cousin, making it nearly impossible for him to heal or move on. Gavin’s struggles mirror our own as we try to cope with our worst national tragedy.

Six years later, in some ways it feels like it happened just yesterday. Though we are healing, our emotions are still raw, and we struggle to make sense of it. We’ve experienced moments of true inspiration and heroism. We’ve also used what happened as an excuse to do some horrible, indefensible things. We’re haunted by memories of that day and the aftermath. The same is true of Tommy Gavin and Engine 62.

Tommy is a major alcoholic who comes from a family of major alcoholics; he threatened his ex-wife’s boyfriend and bribed his son to keep it a secret; he had sex with his dead cousin’s widow; he got in major fist fights with his brother; he slept with his brother’s girlfriend (who happens to be his ex-wife); he bribed his teenage daughter to stay in contact when she moves in with her boyfriend; his favorite phrase is “hey asshole”. When Tommy forced sex on his ex-wife in season three, he was at rock bottom of the man he can be.

In the wake of 9/11, the U.S. has acted similarly despicable despite our potential for greatness when we passed privacy shredding legislation to allow the government unprecedented access to spy on us, arguably in violation of the Constitution. We invaded the (albeit troubled) sovereign nation of Iraq out of a heightened sense of fear and tendency toward hysteria.

Tommy has tried to clean up his life. He stopped drinking and is trying to bring increased stability into his life. And like Tommy, we still hurt. But as we mark this painful anniversary, we owe it to not only those whose lives were lost, but also to ourselves, to imagine the best United States of America we can be and do what it takes to make our aspirations a reality.

Lawyerlee