Thoughts a Week After 9/11

Wednesday, September 19, 2001

On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, a day forever known simply as 9/11, highjackers flew airliners into New York City's World Trade Center. The "Twin Towers" have existed in the skyline since the late 60s; far longer than I have lived in this great city. After standing with gaping holes in their flanks, pouring forth smoke from intense fires caused by 60,000 pounds of jet fuel , the towers finally collapsed upon themselves into a 10-story pile of twisted metal girders, cement chunks, and shards of glass.

An unknown number of people were killed in the disaster. Many of them rescue workers responding to the first attack.

A lucky few souls, a very few, were pulled from the rubble by rescue workers. Everywhere in the City, you can see the desperate hope that missing people, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, and lovers, will turn up alive somewhere, somehow. Flyers with names, ages, vital statistics, and descriptions are posted everywhere. Most notable are the TV vans, some of which are parked around town, with not a square inch of paint showing between the missing-persons flyers taped to them. By now, there is a dreadful, but sure, knowledge that while a couple lucky souls might still be pulled from the wreckage that is "Ground Zero", the list of the victims is probably written in the missing persons files.

The show of support has been incredible. So many construction workers have volunteered to clear rubble that the only way they will take anyone is if they are an iron/steel worker, and have a union card to prove it. So much food has been donated to the rescue workers that as much as half of it goes to waste. Blood centers and hospitals have turned thousands away who wanted to give blood because they couldn't handle the load. The last I heard, the Red Cross was looking only for money, and socks.

My part in the whole disaster has been that of a spectator on the sidelines. I was sleeping late the morning of 9/11; it had all happened by the time I found out. All I know of the events of 9/11 I learned from TV. But since then, I have lived and worked with people affected to greater or lesser degrees. That has affected me. I have seen the confusion and shock of people who were close enough to the tragedy that they feel they survived it. I have seen the despair of those who lost loved ones. Talked to people who were across the street from the WTC when the second plane hit. I have heard their stories of seeing people falling, maybe jumping, from 100 floors up. I have talked to people who were supposed to be on one of those airliners, but for whatever reason were not. I've watched people I know and love barely control emotions, both the joy of being alive, and the sorrow of loss. I can not help but to empathize, and try to understand, no matter how inadequately.

We cannot begin to gage the effect this will have on the lives of Americans from this day forward. Civil liberties that we have always taken for granted will probably be taken from us in the name of safety. This is probably the greater tragedy, since the terrorist will have won a victory, however small. War has been declared on an enemy that exists only as a word in a dictionary. Normal people will walk around with a haunted look in their eyes anytime they look down the avenues of Manhattan and see only clear, blue, sky.

Our search for the terrorists who perpetrated this act will cross all national boundaries. By committing an act so despicable, so huge in scope, America has been given permission to track down terrorism in all its forms no matter where it lives. No nation on earth dare tell us "No" when we show up at the border in force. All nations will submit to an invasion of sorts, or find themselves actually invaded. The US is often called "cops of the world" in a derogatory tone of voice by the rest of the world. The world has seen nothing yet.

My greatest hope is that we treat the nations we invade in the search for those who did this as well as we would hope to be treated were we in their place. I hope we leave these places better, cleaner, healthier, than when we arrived. To do anything else will invite even more hatred.

And maybe that would be the best revenge. Provide food and shelter to the starving refugees of Afghanistan. To provide medical assistance to any nation that suffers terrorist attacks no matter how small. Provide technical and financial assistance to build up the war-torn lands of today to self-sufficiency, as we did for Germany, France, Japan, and others after World War II.

Only then should we hunt down and punish the terrorists of the world. Let them see that our soul and spirit - indeed our desire and ability to do good in the world - can not be crushed. Only then, should we hunt them down and punish them.