Last weekend witnessed two anniversaries, and next month will mark a third. The dates: Aug. 16, Aug. 17-19, and (of course) Sept. 11.

Where were you when Elvis died? On Aug. 16, 1977, I was in the hamlet of Angur Bagh (“Grape Garden”) in Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan. This ethnically mixed settlement had been my base for a year of field research. Folks were infinitely patient and hospitable. Even so, I’d get homesick and go off by myself for late afternoon walks across the fields and irrigation canals. Sometimes I’d take a small, shortwave radio and listen to Voice of America. “Are You Lonely Tonight?” is my pick for the single greatest Elvis ballad. When VOA announced his death that day, I felt pretty lonely.

Afghanistan’s subsequent quarter century has been nothing but trouble. (“Trouble,” from the Elvis TV special of Christmas 1968, contains this line: “My middle name is Misery.”) The fields of Kunduz are now strewn with landmines. Irrigation canals lie wrecked by Soviet bombers. Inter-ethnic co-existence is shattered. Afghans aren’t named “Misery,” but they’ve lived it for 24 years.

They’re still living it. Thus Afghanistan’s multi-day Independence celebration was observed this year more openly in New York than Kabul. Ten thousand immigrants gathered in a Queens park this past Sunday for a re-named “Afghan Heritage Day.” The name change reflects recent conflicts. “Independence” originally meant “from the British.” Now it’s more complicated. There’s been independence from the Soviet occupation and (some would say) independence from the Taliban. But New York Afghans buried the hatchet and welcomed even former Taliban supporters. Said one organizer, “Our celebration is a celebration of our culture, our heritage, us as a people, as a united people, who have had enough of civil war.”

If only the Big Apple could be gestated in Kabul. The latter’s traditional military parade was canceled “for financial reasons.” More likely explanation: Physical insecurity – the great and growing issue in post-Taliban Afghanistan. On this past April 28, Afghanistan’s capital city staged a dandy show (see this column, May 10). But since then a vice president has been murdered outside his office, a full-scale shootout has occurred in the suburbs, international peacekeepers have been attacked, one bomb plot was foiled in the nick of time, and another bomb exploded on Elvis’ death day outside the Afghan Telecommunications Ministry in central Kabul. Not exactly “Love Me Tender.”

So beleaguered Afghan President Hamid Karzai presided over a circumscribed ceremony. Confined within the city stadium, it featured school groups and sports clubs: not much of a show. Ex-King Mohammed Zahir was allowed a rare outing … and, on hearing this news, my mind went back to Independence Day 1972.

King Zahir, then a 50-something monarch, presided over his last Big Day (before being deposed by his cousin eleven months later). I, then a young and wide-eyed diplomat, marveled at royalty’s display of control all across town. Surely it would last forever. Age and anthropology showed me otherwise.

On to the third anniversary: Sept. 11, the national day of Catalonia.

Now based part-time outside Barcelona, I can’t help but learn history. September 11, 1714, was a disaster on which Catalans have solidified national identity. 9/11/01 looks to become the same for Americans. The question, in both cases, has to do with values: What national values are solidified?

Readers are hereby spared details of The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) between the European royal Houses of Bourbon and Hapsburg. Bottom line: Catalonia and its capital Barcelona were on the wrong (Hapsburg) side and suffered lasting consequences. (Small example: Two towers on our 15th-century pile of stone were chopped and are still not rebuilt.)

The victorious Phillip V received this account of his new subjects: “The spirit of the natives lies in their love of liberty, their fondness for all kinds of weapons; they are quick to anger, touchy and vengeful.” Which parts of this description fit 21st-century Americans? We can judge for ourselves by how we “remember” our own September 11 disaster … on what Bushies and CNN both call “The Anniversary.”

Having been abroad, I was slow to recognize this designation. The first time I heard it was this past spring – from a Bush appointee. My concern (and supposedly the topic of conversation) had to do with U.S. interests in Afghanistan, with fostering conditions that could truly lead to good news. The appointee had a different interest: How news from Afghanistan could best be spun – his word was “massaged” – prior to The Anniversary.

Naively, I supposed that he was talking about Afghan Independence Day. Eyes rolled at my ignorance. Not that anniversary. Had the Bushie been a Clintonian, I would have heard, “Sept. 11, stupid.”

Now CNN International is trumpeting the same phrase and anticipating The Anniversary in two hour-long segments. The first ran last Sunday; the second tomorrow.

Much of segment No. 1 was impressive. It showed the America of 9/11/01 in shock but able to function. It showed our open emotionalism and our can-do resilience, our bewilderment and our resolve. It ended, regrettably, with about ten minutes of unpaid, unofficial, Bush administration info-mercial.

When in shock, humans rally round leadership – or at least its semblance – with few questions asked. Are we still in that kind of shock one year later? Or have we regained our equilibrium sufficiently to separate fears from facts, bandwagon slogans from rational arguments?

I don’t pretend to know the answers … but do predict that they’ll be revealed by the way we celebrate The Anniversary. Born in New York, I’m moved by plans for 9/11/02 as reported in that city’s premier newspaper: tributes, concerts, flowers, poems. And, best of all, readings from our history. These texts don’t necessarily deal with terrorism per se. Rather they represent transcendent statements of our best and deepest values: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms, the Declaration of Independence. Like the Catalans, we love our liberty.

Will there also be the liberty – painful but vital – to ask questions? If so, here are some candidates:

1. Why do They hate us?

2. What is Terrorism?

3. Why are We (Americans) more alone than ever in our history on issues of international concern?

and finally:

4. What real leaders can help us address these questions?

Catalans have mostly outgrown their love affair with weapons. Nor do they seem (except when driving) “angry, touchy, and vengeful.” Not so long ago, their 9/11 served as an occasion for challenging Franco’s dictatorship. Can ours serve to raise some of the past year’s unasked questions?

If so, The Anniversary will mark an end to collective shock.

Dr. Whitney Azoy, a cultural anthropologist and former U.S. diplomat in Kabul, has worked for 30 years with Afghanistan and the Muslim world. He was last in Afghanistan in May on a U.S. government contract.