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Semi Truths

a semi-regular column of Truths, Half Truths, and Mostly Truths by Semi.

Volume I, Issue 21 · posted Sept. 14, 2001

THE WISDOM OF INNOCENCE

On Tuesday night, after I sent out my brief column with my first thoughts on that sad day (The Day The Earth Stood Still), I met the family at our temple where they had been attending memorial services. The wife and I agreed that it was important that our kids have some understanding of the tragedy, even though they are very young.

That night, I sat down with my seven-year-old, my oldest daughter, and asked her if she understood why so many people were upset. Her explanation, though simplistic, at least reassured me that she had some comprehension. Then I moved on to the trickier question of how people were going to be feeling at this time.

"People are going to be talking about this for awhile," I told her, "and a lot of people are going to be very upset. So it's okay if you feel sad, or scared, or angry, and I want you to know that you can talk to me about how you feel."

"I am a little scared," she said. "That's okay," I told her. "I'm scared too. It's scary to me to know that there are people out there who are so hateful that they'd want to hurt other people. But we're safe here, in our home and in our town."

"Are you sad too, Daddy?" she asked.

"Yes, I've been feeling sad all day," I said. "How about you, do you feel sad or angry?"

She thought about it for a long moment, then replied "I'm very sad, and a little scared, and I don't think I have any more room in my heart to be angry."

Amen, my child.

THE DAYS AFTER

Tuesday night is my regular time to work in these columns. This last Tuesday, of course, was "911", September 11 2001, a day that shall live in much more than infamy. Instead of my usual political caterwauling, I took that time to express some of my first thoughts following the day's tragic events.

As I have expressed before, these columns have become a forum to allow my Id and Ego to wrestle out their differences in a very public manner; even so, I feared that this exercise would seem even more self-indulgent than usual. After all, I witnessed the Twin Tragedies from the relative safety of my new home town in Virginia (though, admittedly, still less than a hundred miles from DC ... and with airplanes falling out of the sky, is any place safe?). I have friends (and readers) living in New York who were and are experiencing these horrors first hand.

In addition, as I listened to our oafish "President" and other "leaders" drone on about strength and righteousness and retaliation, I began to fear that mine was but a whisper in the midst of all the shouting, a lone voice quietly asking that we all stop for just a moment and look inside, and I secretly feared that I would get messages back from my readers telling me to wake up and get real.

In the immortal words of George Bush Junior, I "misunderestimated" you.

A few readers wrote to express their own sense of outrage and determination, but everybody who has written to me has reflected the same qualities that I have hoped to find in this moment of crisis: wisdom and rationality.

I'll turn the remainder of this column over to my readers in just a moment, but first I want to paint a picture for you.

My office is on a hill; all the trees and other objects have been cleared away to make room for a massive parking lot and I have a pretty commanding view of the sky outside. As I stepped out of my building that Tuesday night, I was struck with how lovely it was. On a day when so much horror had been visited upon our nation, it felt somehow wrong to enjoy the bright, blue, beautiful view.

A few days later, stepping out of that same door, I looked up again and noticed immediately what had been missing before, and how their absence had made the sky seem so bold and vibrant.

Six distinct streams, some harsh white lines, others slowly dissolving in billows of cotton, the visible effluvia of jets racing across the sky on their way to National and Dulles airports.

It must be a good thing, I suppose, that we are returning to normal.

READERS WRITE

Fellow Virginian Dawn McKee expresses her own inner strength with these words:

"I am, as we all are, just in a state of shock and disbelief. Yesterday, I had those thoughts of revenge and that 'go get those bastards!!' attitude. But, also warring with this was my Christian belief that we are all brothers and sisters. We must dig deep into ourselves and allow forgiveness and mercy and we must pray that the people who did this will see us respond in ways that they did not foresee. It is our reactions to their actions that will tell the tale. That is what they are looking for. They are looking for us to act as mean and spiteful and revengeful as they have, so that they have a reason to do something else back at us. There is a great need to break that cycle. There is the need to 'take the high road' and be above all that and show them how we are supposed to act. With compassion, forgiveness, strength and beauty in the face of such tragedy. Only by example will there be the slightest hope that the people who can command such violence against their human brothers and sisters will see the light and change their ways. Is there any hope that it will happen? Yes, there is always hope. It will so much depend as you say, on how our leaders react and what they do in this situation. I pray that George Bush will see the light."

I saw GWB's speech Tuesday night and it left me cold. Jacob Weisberg, writing from Ground Zero in Slate magazine, echoed my thoughts when he wrote "(George Bush was) the only official I saw who failed to create some sense of reassurance... All he knew how to do was read his statement and offer a prayer. My honest, churlish reaction: I wish Bill Clinton were still the president."

When Baghdad started bombing Jerusalem at the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991, I knew many people who wanted to rush back to Israel. At the time, I thought it was the craziest thing I had ever heard. Watching the events unfold this week, I finally understood ... for a deep, instinctual part of me wanted get back up to New York, which was my home before I moved to Virginia, even as I knew that if I were there, being someplace else probably would have looked pretty good right about then.

Some readers in New York wrote to me of their experience that day, including my friend Martin Schneebalg:

"I work just across from the Empire State Building. Right after the WTC incident, The Empire State Bldg. was evacuated and sealed off. I left my office shortly after. However, no mass transit was functioning. I was stranded in Manhattan. As I walked on Sixth Ave., people were walking uptown quite calmly until the WTC collapsed. Like a big explosion. Some people grew very emotional. Some took pictures. Not every day buildings in NY collapse. I retreated into a coffee shop, all other shops had closed. The cafe blared news updates from the speakers, people still walked calmly uptown. Not much fazes New Yorkers.

"Luckily, my train was one of the few line to function out of Manhattan. I took nearly an hour, but made it home safely. Where I live is quite suburban, lots of trees. Like WTC was just a movie screen. But I could still see the smoke from my neighborhood. I don't know what Bush has planned. My TV signal got wiped out so I couldn't listen to his speech..."

Then you are one of the lucky ones.

I find it interesting how many times I heard similar cinematic references: "just like something out of the movies!". I actually saw a commentator explaining to Tom Brokaw what it was like when the second tower fell: "Remember in 'Independence Day' when the aliens blew up the financial district and you saw all that white smoke rushing up the canyons of downtown Manhattan. Well, it was just like that!" (To which I wanted Brokaw to reply; "Oh yeah, remember in Ghostbusters when the giant Stay-Puft© man exploded and there was huge gobs of marshmallow everywhere? Was it like that?")

My dear friend OSohRose, an Assistant District Attorney working in downtown Manhattan — and, incidentally, in her second trimester with twins and suffering from a broken foot (one suspects that she has many interesting days) — also related her first-hand account:

"I, too, am too numb to feel angry...I had gotten to work early, to be there to meet with some witnesses. I don't know if they ever showed; at some point they stopped letting people into our building. Even the spouse of one of my colleagues, who works in the World Financial Center, had to be 'claimed' because he had been evacuated from his office without his jacket, which held his wallet and keys.

"When my building was evacuated, my good friends and colleagues found me a wheelchair in the Witness Aid Services Unit (which they had to get into somehow, since it had already been evacuated and locked). They (particularly the guy who left his jacket in his office at WFC) pushed me home across the Manhattan Bridge. None of us wanted to go across the Brooklyn Bridge, in case, landmark that it is, it ended up being the next target. The exodus across the bridge was really quite something. Every now and then, someone could be seen with the white dust on their shoes — the ash characteristically decorating those who had been really close to ground zero. So far, I do not know anyone who was killed or even injured more than a scraped knee. I do not know how long I will be able to say that."

You can also get an interesting perspective from her writer-husband, who provides a powerful description of these events from the other side of the Manhattan Bridge in his published report at:
http://web.star-telegram.com/content/fortworth/2001/09/12/opinions/fw010407-0912-XB012-2.htm

Another friend and reader, who uses the online moniker TrustNo1, ponders where we will go from here:

"Today the world got a little smaller.

"As we all ask 'why?' and 'whom?' we should also ask 'what next?'. Well let me tell you I’ll never be the same. I suspect we will lose some civil liberties in the pursuit of information and justice. We will lean toward a more suspicious and fearful attitude toward others and privacy will become an even greater issue.

"Will the FBI be able to use Carnivore with impunity? You bet. Will there be a greater crackdown on 'freedoms' as we know in general. You bet. Will you be able to point to this day and say this is when 'it' all started? You bet.

"Why am I not angrier than I am? First of all it all looks so surreal. I still can’t believe it. I’ve seen airplanes hit the buildings. I’ve seen the crash footage. Maybe when I see the bodies I’ll be really pissed. Right now I’m still stunned.

"Today the Earth stood still. Tomorrow it reacts..."

I, too, am concerned that those within our own government with larger agendas may use the mood of outrage in our country to justify new and draconian rules imposed on our citizens in the name of "national security". Moreover, I was stunned to hear a partisan political analyst on the radio announce that the President's proposed "missile shield" technology could have been used to protect our cities from the hijacked planes, the first time I had heard anyone suggest that this ill-considered plan could be used to shoot down planes in our own air space!

Another New Yorker, blues guitarist Russell "Hitman" Alexander (he of the Ronald Reagan Bonzo Years website that I recently highlighted) also has some suggestions regarding future policy. His stance is tough, but he makes some important points:

"I was unaware of the quote from Clinton after Oklahoma City, and while he is FAR from my favorite president, at least he understood that people need more than a five minute 'we'll get those bastards'. Too bad the current moron is so inept — I think it's up to Joe Average to make sure specific, concrete steps are taken:

Eliminate, completely, our dependence on oil for transportation and heating. This will bankrupt the economies of the Middle East — tough crap. The sheiks and sultans have kept all the money for themselves, leaving their people impoverished and (intentionally) uneducated, so they can be ruled by religion and propaganda. They can go back to herding goats. No oil money, no funding for terrorists.
Use our multi-billion dollar satellites to pinpoint terrorist training camps, and eliminate them. Without warning, without apologies.
Explain to the governments harboring international terrorists that they must be handed over to international courts. If not, we will initiate attacks on their specific governmental headquarters, NOT on their civilian population. If they are supporting terrorists, they will be treated as terrorists.
No excuses from our intelligence community. I actually heard a retired operative whining that they can't infiltrate the terrorists groups because they're not allowed, by law, to use people with violent pasts. That law was passed with damn good reason. That's why we spend untold billions on these agencies every year — they're supposed to put THEIR people into these groups, not recruit current terrorists and hope they can get them to betray their fanatic ideals. If they can't infiltrate these organizations (and apparently, they can't) then they have to find another way to do their job. They sure screwed this one up.
Stop supporting repressive, fascist regimes on the pretext that 'we're saving them from communism', or to 'protect our business interests'. It's this kind of thinking that has caused our government to do much evil in the world, and inspired these lunatics. Not that it would prevent religious fanatics from committing acts of terror, but at least it would put us on moral high ground that we should have been on all along.

"These are just a few of the things that must be addressed. We cannot allow this act to settle into the dust of history without some permanent changes being made."

I don't share the same confidence in our technology to track these terrorists down, but I certainly agree with the point that we need to lessen our dependency on non-renewable resources. I fear that the current administration will be able to use this atmosphere to push their alternative plan for increased domestic drilling. Yes, as cynical as it sounds, I believe the oil companies may profit from this incident.

I certainly hope that we take a good, long look deep into our souls and reconsider many of our foreign policies that have made us such a despised entity. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, implying that our country deserved this attack. We did not, and I grieve for the unimaginable number of innocent victims. We are the most powerful nation on the planet, and the world's largest democracy, and I do not think that is a coincidence. Our democracy is our strength, but when we lie down with vipers, we will certainly get bitten.

As has frequently been reported (see Michael Moran's excellent article at MSNBC), our intelligence agencies (through the ISI, the CIA-sponsored overseas espionage agency) essentially schooled Osama bin-Laden in the art of terrorism while funding and training "resistance fighters" during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Now, as head of Al-Qaeda — an umbrella organization with deep ties to most radical Islamist separatist groups, including Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Armed Islamic Group — bin-Laden may have hundreds if not thousands of followers who are willing to sacrifice their lives in attacks on the United States and other western nations.

We are at a crossroads right now, and the decisions that get made in the next few weeks will determine the fates and lives of citizens all across the globe. St Augustine said "hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to struggle to create things as they should be.” Let us hope that our leaders have the courage to be wise, and the wisdom to be courageous.

what are your thoughts? email me

WRITERS ON THE WEB

Many, many people have written about their experiences and their thoughts following the Twin Tragedies, and I am well pleased at the level of rationality and sense of perspective that I have seen being expressed.

One of the more recent and useful tools to be added to the internet are weblogs, sites that allow authors to update content through simple email or using any browser. This gives a new mobility to writers who wish to publish from indeterminate locations and provides a new sense of immediacy.One of the more interesting weblogs to come out of lower Manhattan this week is that of Laura Flanders of WorkingForChange.com. See Live reports from Manhattan at http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=11899

As I write this, one of my heroes, Michael Moore — filmmaker (Roger and Me), writer (Downsize This!), TV producer (The Awful Truth), and general troublemaker — is slowly working his way across the country back to his home in New York after having been stranded on the West Coast, and he still managed to fire off a letter to his website that expresses his anger and his concern with a simple eloquence that I have yet to achieve. See Mike's Message at http://michaelmoore.com/2001_0914.html.

have you found interesting writers on the web? Let me know

WRITERS ON WRITING

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." — Mark Twain