September 11 Charity Fights Misconceptions About National Day of Service

David Paine, co-founder of MyGoodDeed, a charity that promotes volunteerism on September 11, says he is amazed at some misconceptions that are floating around about the decision to designate the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Writing on the Huffington Post, he says the trouble began when The American Spectator published an article in August saying President Obama was “behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort” to turn September 11 into “a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.”

The charge was picked up by some blogs and by Laura Ingraham on Fox News. Then the MyGoodDeed Web site, which asks people to post their good deeds for the day, started getting angry comments like, “How dare you try to [co-opt] 9/11 from National Day of Mourning to cheesy Obamabot service day.”

Mr. Paine says he called the magazine article’s author to explain that families of September 11 victims have been pushing for a national day of service for about seven years, and it was not a plot hatched by President Obama.

People across the political spectrum supported that idea, he says. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed into law last spring, designated the National Day of Service and Remembrance, and President Obama made it official yesterday.

“Needless to say, 9/11 is not a day that should ever be politicized or used to flame the fires of partisanship,” Mr. Paine writes.“It must always be a day of unity, patriotism, and reflection, along with remembrance.”