The day started ordinarily enough. I was worried about playing catch-up at work after having taken time off while my parents visited — they were on their way to the airport. Oh, yeah, I was also worried about Blogger template problems.
I nattered on about my Blackberry — which, at the moment, is gathering dust, unused for some months.
At 7:29a, I had heard and posted about the attack on the WTC.
In an free and open society, there is no such thing as perfect safety.
Damn their eyes, and damn those who overreact to this.
I quickly dropped back into analytical/intellectual mode, shunting the horror of what had happened into some faux Sun-Tzu pontificating about not overreacting.
I wondered about what we could do to prevent attacks like this.
About the only thing I can think of that we must do is rebuild. Do it at the taxpayer’s expense, if need be. Take away the symbol they’ve created. Restate the struggle in our own terms. “No defeat. No surrender.”
And get ready for a longer, rougher ride.
I also mentioned two quotations that I don’t think got into the collection below:
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.
— Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968)
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
— Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)
Much of the day was spent figuring out whether my folks would be staying with us indefinitely, or else be trapped at DIA. Meanwhile, various offices of my company, especially those in places like Oak Ridge, were closing for the day (or being forced to close).
I talked a bit about the Stages of Grieving and how they applied. It was actually a good little bit.
In looking at my own feelings on today’s terrorist attacks, and the reactions I hear from those around me, I see this happening.
1. Denial: “Oh, no!” “Oh, you must be mistaken — I’ll check on the news myself.” “Man, I can’t believe this is happening!” “This is a crazy world we live in! [i.e., this didn’t happen for a reason]” “Those people are nuts. [ditto]”
2. Anger: “We should bomb them [which “them”?] back to the stone age!” “We need to find those guys and hang them by their thumbs!” “How could God have allowed this to happen?” “Where were the FBI? Why didn’t the government protect us?”
3. Bargaining: “How can we stop this from happening?” “If we spend this money, take this action, pass this law, impose these restrictions, can we make it go away?”
4. Depression: “It’s just going to get worse.” “This is only the beginning.” “People are animals.”
5. Acceptance: “Okay … where do we go from here?”
Folks continued to get panicky as they tried to figure out how to batten down the hatches.
I started getting angry, at last, around 11:13a. I commented that if this was being done on behalf of the Palestinians, they had just permanently shot any of the good will they’d been slowly building up.
The analogy to — and serious unreality of — comic books occured to me.
I was getting angrier as the day wore on, and instead of ranting, pointed to a moving post by Doyce.
What was normal any more? How did the terrorists coordinate all of this? How closely did they coordinate it?
The BBC’s main story covering this is still up, by the way. The links to the Monitor and to the picture page that Rey put up are rotted, I fear.
Finally, that evening, I tried to sum up the day as best I could.
That having been said, I disagree that this was all an “attack on freedom,” or because the US is the “brightest beacon of freedom in the world.” This was not an attack on freedom. It was a pursuit of an ideological goal to the exclusion of value of human life. It was an attack on life itself, on civilization. But “freedom” (or lack thereof) doesn’t seem to have had much to do with it.
The other question that came up was that of Evil (with a capital E). Is there Evil in the world? Is there a personification of Evil, driving these sorts of tragic events? Were these Evil people? Or were they misguided people? Was it a matter of fanaticism? Is it just a drive of testosterone, of speech-possessing primates squabbling over their selfish, trivial concerns?
I dunno. I think it was an Evil thing. I am more inclined to attribute Evil to actions than to people (that way demonization of ones opponents lies). But I think there was something more meaningful to this than simple territorialism or primate squabbling or a random collection of organic compounds interacting in a destructive fashion.
Believing in a personification of Evil is out of fashion these days, and sometimes I think it’s an easy way to scapegoat one’s actions — “The Devil Made Me Do It.” But I do think there is Evil.
I think today’s efforts stand as proof of that.
I don’t know that much over the last year has changed any of that assessment.
If I could time travel back to myself of that day, a la Lileks (and Doyce), what would I say?
- There will be very little in the way of follow-ups on these attacks. Whether that’s because they used all their available operatives, because US counter-terrorism efforts became more effective, or because they’re just biding their time, nobody knows.
- There will be lots of sound and fury in DC about what to do internally, most of which will result in a lot of scary laws, a lot of fairly useless security measures at airports, and a lot of pontificating. A conservative administration will be accused of being both pro-Big Government and anti-Constitution — with some justification (though less than the loudest accusers will claim).
- There will be a lots of sound and fury in DC about what to do externally, which will result in major military action in Afghanistan (which will turn out to be far less quagmirey than the Soviets found it), lots of strained relations with Euro-weenies, lots of violence in Israel, drumbeats of war leading toward Iraq, and a great deal of debate about whether the Saudis are friends, allies, partners, or the true villains in the piece.
- Katherine will get even more amazing. Margie will remain her usual amazing self.
- You’ll be really glad you started your blog before 9/11.
The next day, I wrote a final summing-up of my feelings the day before. After discussing rebuilding the WTC (I voted for it), and worries that the US would become either isolationist or else lash out bloodily at anyone we thought was guilty (neither of which, really, has happened), I wrote the following.
If I have prayers for the future, it is not for safety, for life itself is not safe, and while I may never be blown up by a terrorist bomb, I can as easily (and more likely) be hit by a car in a parking lot. And it’s not for vengeance, though I think that, right at this moment, I’d grimly and willingly flip the switch/drop the pill/open the scaffold/give the order to fire.
No — it’s that we (and by “we” I mean the US, and those who will stand with us) act in our response to this in a fashion that we can be proud of, that can be a model for others in the future. Justice, mercy, freedom, respect, tolerance, commitment. We find the guilty and punish them, but we do so in a fashion beyond reproach, even if it’s harder, even if it’s less satisfying in some atavistic sense. And we take steps to protect ourselves, but not in a way that unduly compromises the basic freedoms that we claim we stand for.
This can be our finest hour. I pray we don’t blow it, and that we use it to show the world that we are in fact that “shining beacon of freedom” that the President spoke of last night.