editorials

9/11 has come 'round again, the seventh time since Al-Qaida hijackers turned four airplanes into flying bombs, killed 2,974 innocent people and shook the world. Americans have been responding ever since, in ways history will judge both wise and misguided.

This year's anniversary falls during a presidential election campaign that is, in some degree, a referendum on that response to date, and a chance to refine it. It's easy to imagine this day becoming an occasion for vitriol, blame laying and fearmongering for the sake of partisan gain. Political strategists who have no compunction about dividing Americans in order to win elections have done as much before.

To their credit, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have sworn off such strategies, at least for today. The two major-party presidential candidates announced last weekend their plans to appear at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. They plan to stand together, in honor of those who died, in solidarity with those who grieve, and in recognition that this politically divided nation longs to be one.

"All of us came together on 9/11 -- not as Democrats or Republicans -- but as Americans," the two candidates said in a joint release. "On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity."

That's a lot to ask of one joint appearance by two candidates. But their meeting ought not be dismissed as a fleeting bit of campaign theater. By standing together, Obama and McCain will present to the nation and the world an image both powerful and hopeful. It will tacitly rebuke those who have used the memory of 9/11 for partisan advantage. And it will at least hint at the possibility that more effort will be made in the future to reach bipartisan accord on how best to prevail over agents of terrorism.

The notion that America can still get its 9/11 response right should carry over into the other joint activity McCain and Obama plan today. They are set for back-to-back appearances at the ServiceNation Summit in New York tonight, to be televised at 7 p.m. on CNN and MSNBC.

ServiceNation is a campaign -- involving more than 100 organizations strong -- for a new national commitment to volunteerism and public service. It aims to enlist Americans by the millions to donate a year of their lives to volunteer work, and to commit an hour or more per week to community betterment. Tonight's forum allows Obama and McCain to issue a presidential call to public service, something many Americans have been waiting seven years to hear. The candidates can affirm the very American tenet that individuals who work together for the common good can solve big problems.

The occasion gives McCain a chance to say more about his party's view of community organizing, work that Obama once did and that vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and others ridiculed at the GOP convention. That work -- the recruitment and deployment of volunteers -- is something the next president ought to respect and encourage.

Calling Americans to public service is a worthy way for the two presidential candidates to spend a portion of this anniversary day. If that call becomes a campaign staple in the next eight weeks, so much the better.