There was no real need to donate blood on Sept. 11, 2001.
The medical network on the East Coast already had more than enough for the 9/11 victims.
Nevertheless, hundreds of people lined up at blood banks in the South Sound on that Tuesday morning, eager to make a symbolic sacrifice.
By midmorning, nearly 100 people were waiting in line at the Cascade Regional Blood Services collection center across from Tacoma's Wright Park.
Sharon Fishler waited nearly three hours to donate.
"I felt powerless," she told a reporter that day. "I needed to do something to help those people."
At the end of the day, the center had drawn 443 pints of blood – more than 55 gallons – and had to turn away 50 people still waiting at closing time.
The attacks on the World Trade Centers inspired an overwhelming rush of feelings here. Manhattan is 2,400 miles away, but shock and sorrow shrank the distance to nothing.
"I cry for people I don't even know," said Deana McCarthy of Tacoma. "I cry for the families that had people die. I cry for the people who died. I cry for the people who were hanging out the windows with no way to get out, just sitting there waiting to die."
The generations of Americans born after Pearl Harbor had never experienced anything comparable, making them unprepared for the tribal surge of patriotism that followed the attack.
Flags sprouted everywhere – on houses, in lawns, taped to the insides of car windows, on antennas, waving from the beds of pickup trucks. Middle-aged men on Harley-Davidsons towed flags almost as big as their motorcycles.
Some of the patriotism had to do with anger.
An open public forum set up by The News Tribune received a stream of calls for revenge.
"Our vengeance will be horrible and swift," warned a man who signed his name W.J. Garrick. "God bless America."
Another, Leslie Sample of Lakewood, said, "We should level their countries so that we never have to worry about an issue like this from them again."
As far as who "them" was, Sample said, "It is any country that is not with us. Any country that is not backing us and behind us, any country that's not flying its flags at half-staff. Level them to the ground."
But, overall, the surge of patriotism seemed to have less to do with anger than a need for solidarity. "United We Stand," said a bumper sticker that appeared almost immediately.
At the Tacoma Farmers Market, two days after the attacks, people handed out small American flags and pinned yellow ribbons to their shirts.
Shortly after noon, singer Ruthi Blu interrupted her performance of love songs to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner."
"We came out to the street and joined hands," said market vice president Mary Ellen Winski, who was sitting in a booth nearby.
"There were people halfway down the block standing still with tears in their eyes," said Linda Dahl, another market official.
At Korum Ford, just off Interstate 5 in Fife, an electronic billboard flashed pictures of the American flag, the Statue of Liberty and President George W. Bush with the message "God Bless America."
Driving on the freeway, listening to the news on the radio, it was not unusual to glance at other solitary drivers, and see faces contorted with grief or openly weeping.
Major League Baseball postponed its schedule of 15 games on Sept. 11, including the Seattle Mariners' game in Anaheim.
Aside from strikes, it was the first time since D-Day in 1944 that baseball postponed a whole day of regular-season play.
SECURITY TIGHTENED
The government security response was even more dramatic. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered all aircraft grounded, and Sea-Tac Airport shut down, including the off-ramps from I-5.
Port of Seattle police were out in force, patrolling parking garages, questioning people who wandered away from their baggage and even going so far as to remove metal utensils from restaurants near passenger loading gates.
As a result of the shutdown, 114 passenger planes and 19 cargo planes sat on the airport's tarmac.
Just after 6 a.m., federal marshals locked down the U.S. District Courthouse in Tacoma's Union Station. Security guards blocked off the sidewalk in front of the courthouse and waved off cars and pedestrians who paused near the building.
Gov. Gary Locke shut down the Legislative Building in Olympia. Bomb-sniffing dogs made the rounds of state offices.
The Washington State Patrol put 1,000 troopers on four-hour alert status, meaning they would have that long to report for emergency duty, anywhere in the state.
Troopers were dispatched to inspect every bridge in the state for signs of terrorist activity. The state ferry system halted all vehicle traffic. The boats ran, but with passengers only.
The Air Force stopped flying, the Army suspended artillery training and the Navy ordered its warships to set sail rather than leaving them tied up and vulnerable at Puget Sound docks.
Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base went to "Threatcon Delta" – the highest possible alert status – and closed all but their main gates. As a consequence, hundreds of service members were caught up in traffic jams that stretched for miles north and south on I-5.
Many private businesses closed for the day. The Tacoma Mall locked its doors shortly after the attacks, evacuating nearly 500 shoppers and early morning exercisers making their rounds.
Northgate Mall in Seattle, SeaTac Mall in Federal Way and the SuperMall in Auburn also closed. The Space Needle was closed; guards were posted outside.
Even Starbucks stores shut down.
At a Starbucks at Third Avenue and Spring Street in Seattle, a handwritten sign taped to the locked doors said: "Closed due to bombings this morning. This is a time to be home with our loved ones and to be safe. All Starbucks nationwide are closed. Thank you."
ANGER AND COMPASSION
In Tacoma, as elsewhere, the attacks brought out the best in people and also the worst.
Saif Alkhawlani, a representative of the Islamic Center on Tacoma's Bridgeport Way, reported on the day of the attack that the center had received three or four hate messages by telephone and a death threat. The death threat led to police cruisers being parked near the center on 24-hour watch.
On Sept. 12, a Sikh taxi driver at Sea-Tac was attacked and accused of being a terrorist by a man who mistakenly thought that Sikhs are Muslim.
The next day, a gun-toting man tried to torch a car parked outside a North Seattle mosque.
Many others urged peace and restraint.
After the threats to Tacoma's Islamic Center were made public, the center received hundreds of cards and bouquets of flowers from well-wishers.
On Saturday, four days after the attacks, more than a dozen Tacoma ministers and representatives from 15 local congregations gathered in the center parking lot to show their support for American Muslims.
"We will unite with you and say, ‘Never again,' " said Nancy Johnson, pastor of First Lutheran Church in Puyallup and one of several religious leaders called on to speak."
"Never again will we sow seeds of hatred," Johnson said. "Never again will we be aggressors when we should be peacemakers."
Rob Carson: 253-597-8693
rob.carson@thenewstribune.com
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