9/11: Five Years Later
Today is a somber occasion for the New York/New England area. Thanks to some events beyond the control of many Northeasterners, this brave group of folks must join together today to cope with and possibly overcome the day’s tragic events.
But enough of talking about the New England Patriots trading wide receiver Deion Branch to the Seattle Seahawks for a 2007 draft pick.
Today marks the five-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Now it would be convenient for me to say how this event affected my worldview, but it really did not. On this day five years ago I woke up at around 10-10:30 a.m., ate breakfast, did a few odds and ends around my Middletown, Ohio, townhouse, and then went to peruse on-line job listings, among a few other Internet-related Web sites that unemployed men frequent with when they’re home alone (ain’t nothing like playing on-line backgammon in your underwear). As I turned on the radio to listen to Rush, I knew something was not right; a newscast was being aired, and it was well past the top-of-the-hour news update. For several minutes I didn’t know what was going on and was impatiently waiting for either Drudge’s Web site (I still had dialup at the time) or the radio news to tell me that a couple of airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center. When I finally heard what happened, I didn’t gasp, cry or feel like we were in a state of WWIII. Even when I had the television news on later that day and saw those politicians in D.C. break out into song, I rolled my eyes over how phony this “spontaneous” moment seemed. (I can’t remember what they were singing – either “God Bless America” or “America the Beautiful.”) I guess all this makes me a terrorist. I wasn’t cheering for more American deaths, but I didn’t have a life-changing moment during this day. Oh well, at least I wasn’t laughing at people jumping from the Twin Towers.
The odd thing about 9/11 is that while it didn’t really affect me all that much, it was the exact opposite for the better half. Ever since we met in 1997, we were polar opposites when it came to current events. I was the cynical newsy curmudgeon who was hooting and hollering on Election Night as Bush stole won his first presidential term -- OMGSELECTEDNOTELECTEDLOL2000! She was the one who would take charge of the remote control when I would step away for a moment and turn to the Cartoon Network so she could watch “Angry Beavers,” or that stupid “Rocco’s Modern Life.” We didn’t talk politics and she didn’t vote. She didn’t mind Bill Clinton as president, but she knew nothing about him other than he got a hummer from some intern in the Oval Office. When 9/11 hit, it changed her outlook on life. She didn’t break down and start wailing like someone being “saved” at a Baptist church, but I could tell there was some uneasiness (well, more so than usual – you’d be the same if you had to live with me in sin). Yes, she was one of those people who went out and bought an American flag days after this terrorist attack. In fact, the flag she bought was so damn big it was too heavy for its holder and couldn’t stand upright on our front steps. She also bought one of those car ribbon-sticker things that came out en masse shortly thereafter, which is still on her car today in all of its faded glory. In addition, she began paying attention to current events; it was weird to have her come home from classes and start asking me what I thought about a specific news story of the day.
Because five years have jaded me even more than I was back in 2001, I’m going to go back into the arkkkives and see what I wrote about this event shortly after it happened. From September 18, 2001:
A week ago America was hit by a well-coordinated terrorist attack, and the casualties included the World Trade Center’s twin towers, the Pentagon and thousands of innocent bystanders.
This event’s fallout was predictable, or at least what could be expected, considering something like this has never occurred on American soil before. Allies from around the world sent condolences and offered support. Adversaries, particularly in Afghanistan, braced for a retaliatory strike that, so far, hasn’t materialized.
And amidst the rubble, where a proud symbol of capitalism once stood, Americans showed the world their resolve by working tirelessly to search for survivors under hundreds of tons of steel and concrete.
But despite a country where nearly 300 million of its citizens have come together in a nationalist frenzy not seen since World War II (Wal-Mart alone sold over 115,000 American flags on the day of the attack), some uneasiness lingers in the air.
After getting over the initial shock, many people are asking how can an incident like this happen on American soil. This question does not have an easy answer, and one scapegoat isn’t enough to sweep this incident under a rug. It’s simple to blame this attack on the CIA or FBI not doing their job, or to lambaste poorly trained airport security guards who are one rung above a mall cop on the law enforcement ladder.
Sadly, neither of these parties could have prevented what happened last Tuesday.
I’m not advising America turns itself into a police state, but law and order is something that must be taken more seriously now than ever before. For years, it seems that other priorities took precedence over security in the U.S. A recent example of this attitude at work could be found on Capitol Hill not too long ago.
Back when deficit spending was still considered the Boogeyman, a budgetary power move would have forced President George W. Bush to choose between defense spending and having Congress go in the red.
Prior to the World Trade Center attack, Democrats were strategizing on how to get their preferred appropriations passed, thus giving Bush little wiggle room for his priorities, one of them being increased defense spending. Examples like this show that security, as a whole, hasn’t been given the proper attention it deserved for some time. Now there are two buildings in New York City that are no more.
Please note that I’m not blaming Democrats, nor Bill Clinton, for the events that took place on September 11, 2001. (Ironically, one of Bush’s biggest initiatives, a missile defense shield, would have been ineffective at stopping four groups of terrorists from hijacking airplanes and flying into targets.) We as Americans all got caught with our pants down on this occasion.
It’s easy to disregard security measures when there looks to be no dark cloud forming along the horizon. There were warning signs -- the U.S.S. Cole attack last year, the embassy bombings in Kenya back in 1998 -- but it didn’t seem as harrowing because these events took place in another hemisphere.
Watching terrorist attacks on CNN may be a disturbing experience, especially if footage is graphic enough, but nothing prepares you for when the explosions occur in your own backyard.
Now that the immediate horror has subsided, a few long-term ramifications from last week’s attack are slowly surfacing.
One is economical.
Aside from stock markets worldwide shooting in a downward spiral, companies -- namely those involved in the airline industry -- are announcing layoffs in the tens of thousands. Leading the way is Boeing, which announced cutting 30,000 jobs as a result of the recent terrorist attack.
Along with financial losses, there is a very real threat to the American way of life. Shortly after the second twin tower collapsed, politicians were already talking about how Americans would have to give up some freedoms normally taken for granted in order for a safer standard of living.
In a way, America is a victim if its own success. In the land of the free, there were many crevices that a terrorist could slither into and wreak havoc upon. With an all-access pass to just about anywhere in this country, it was only a matter of time before an attack of this magnitude would occur on American soil. For years, we have taken our freedom for granted, thinking that no harm could come from open borders and lax security. Alas, that is not the case anymore.
Undoubtedly, the U.S. is not like a lot of other countries when it comes to security procedures. Most airline passengers in other countries endure a three-hour wait to get on board a plane because of safety precautions. Americans spend hours at an airport because their flight got delayed. Foreigners have noted the lack of law enforcement figures on public streets when compared to their homelands. Even the abundance of public trash cans, which can be an accommodating spot to plant explosives, baffles citizens from places used to terrorism, such as England or Spain.
Like it or not, there are some extra precautions that will soon take place at public venues. Additional airport security, more sky marshals working undercover on flights, unbreakable doors to a plane’s cockpit are all reasonable changes and should be enacted as soon as possible. Forbidding containers at stadiums may force someone to shell out a few dollars at concession stands, but eating an overpriced hot dog is better than eating shrapnel any day.
While measures like these will change the way Americans live their lives, there shouldn’t be any serious threat to fundamental freedoms. How will we know if the line from being careful to being cut off is crossed? It will probably be an ongoing learning process involving trial and error, but know this: If Americans recoil drastically from their way of living back as a result of Tuesday’s events, then the terrorists flying those ill-fated planes have already won.
If the 9/11 terrorist attacks made you re-think your life and what was really important to you, then cool. If it made you into a better person (or at least a “better person” by your definition), then rock on. However, if you were on the sideline wondering why you weren't feeling the same wave of “patriotism” because you didn’t buy a flag the day after 9/11, or if you skipped some “freedom rally” held a week or so after these attacks, don’t worry: you weren’t alone. For some of us, it takes a really unbelievable event to occur in order for our faith to be tested, like, say, the Pirates winning the World Series.
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