I live in the North End of Tacoma. Every day I see private airplanes directly overhead from the Tacoma Narrows Airport near Gig Harbor, cargo planes coming in for a landing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and a bit farther away I see jets approaching or leaving Sea-Tac.
My most vivid memory immediately after 9/11 is the silence of the skies those next several days.
It almost seems like a fairy tale to think back on those times. The year 2000 had ended with a massive budget surplus and a contested presidential election. The rambling ravings of trouble-makers abroad were the fodder of late night comics. Osama bin Laden was one of many cartoonish characters. When he vowed to bring down the American economy and make us all live in fear, we smirked and made fun of this eccentric in robes and rags.
Ten years after 9/11, our economy is in shambles, airline travel is humiliating and intrusive, there are “security” cameras everywhere it seems, and everyone, from great-grandmothers to 6-year-olds, are patted down and considered potential terrorists.
The America before 9/11, the America I and many of us loved and miss, the America of “innocent until proven guilty,” the America that protected its citizens against unlawful search and seizure and near constant surveillance, is long gone.
President George W. Bush told us he was not interested in “nation-building,” but we have been doing little else for about ten years now – with no sign of slowing.
When most of us weren’t looking, our nation took on the dictionary-defined attributes of empire. And as every student of history knows, empires rarely collapse from outside forces. Empires implode because of overreaching, internal squabbling and debt.
We see all these in our headlines and national debates.
It takes no courage to hide behind inflexible ideologies. It is the death of communication, both personal and political, to disregard or dismiss those who have other experiences, beliefs or points of view.
9/11 showed us the grim results of blind fundamentalism; our response, many times, is yet another example.
A million people gathered in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 12 in sympathy and support of us. French headlines declared – in English! – “We are all Americans now.”
The world was with us, our economy was strong. This international good will and budget surplus were squandered so quickly, one has to wonder if it was intentional.
Shortly after 9/11 there was a saying, “If we change how we live, we let the terrorists win. Don’t let the terrorists win.”
By any standard, we have changed dramatically over the past 10 years. 9/11 has brought out the best, and sometimes the worst in us. Our responses have ranged from reflective to ludicrous and forgettable. Anyone remember Freedom Fries?
But it is always our choice.
We can dissolve into the fractious, hostile world of rabid talk shows and fight or fear everyone different from us, or we can become more firmly rooted in our founding documents and traditions that welcome and nourish new and challenging ideas and beliefs. This is what has always made us stronger and better.
We did find out who our true friends are; a true friend will not blindly support us no matter what we do. A true friend will challenge us when we do something foolish and self-destructive.
Far too many of us have become shrill, doctrinaire and suspicious of each other. Cowardice, fear and suspicion don’t make us better individuals, and they certainly don’t make us a better nation.
We dare not let the terrorists win.
M. Morford (Morf) of Tacoma is a former reader columnist. Email him at mmorf@mail.com.
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