Paralleling the ground broken in New York City at Ground Zero little more than a month ago, this election year brings with it the chance to turn an inescapably grim date into a world-recognized opportunity for comment and change.

Around the world on Saturday, September 11, people will meet in public places to share ideas about what democracy, citizenship, and patriotism are today. The September Project, funded by the University of Washington and the Washington Medical Librarians Association, hosts a web site promoting libraries as the ideal setting for this event. The site proposes several activities to stimulate ideas, including shared readings, talks, children’s programs, roundtables, open forums, displays, and last but not least, voter registration. Santa Cruz County Library System in California, for example, will host a forum via 10 of its branches, where people will explore the questions: “What works well in America?,” “What needs fixing?,” and “What can we do to fix it?” Hosting libraries are encouraged to share their ideas, many of which are already available online.

A list and map of participating venues around the world are available on the web site, which I visited immediately, anticipating a plethora of hosting libraries in Los Angeles County which would mirror the activist awareness of my undergrad home, Santa Cruz. Imagine my surprise when the page opened to show that in a county large enough to eclipse Santa Cruz county many times over, only three libraries have signed on as host, all of which require more than an hour’s drive, round-trip, from where I live in Venice.

There’s still time to “take back” September 11 by signing up on the September Project web site. It’s one of the more entertaining ways we can change history.