Reflections on September 11

Christopher T. Gates

As I write this, it is three weeks after the horrible events of September 11, 2001. While most of us have made some progress in getting "back to normal," there is no question that the mood of the country and the mood in our communities are anything but "normal." Just because we go to work, drive to the store, keep up with a few social obligations, and even get back on airplanes doesn't mean that our lives resemble the innocence of September 10th.

Everyone I know, and all of us here at NCL, has struggled with their emotions and thoughts for the past three weeks. We all bounce among fear, confusion, anger, tears and rage. We struggle to find meaning but discover there may be none. Political and historical analyses of terrorism may provide explanations for what happened on September 11th, but there can be no justification and our sorrow is hard to bear.

The shock of this terror causes us to wonder if something has fundamentally changed in our country and in our lives. Beyond a now-likely recession and the militarization of our airports, what else will change in the way we live our lives and the way we interact with each other?

Some of the early indications tell us that the first reaction of many has been to withdraw to their homes and families. While movie theater and restaurant revenues are down, video rentals and pizza delivery orders are up. Hotels suffer from low occupancy rates and airline after airline has announced layoffs of tens of thousands of employees. We are not in the mood to travel and not in the mood to go out. We desire the security of our home and family in this moment when all of our assumptions about our safety and security have been placed in doubt. But presumably this natural impulse will pass, and we will recognize that we cannot live in fear and we cannot live our lives in isolation from each other.

So when this moment of withdrawal passes, how will we choose to interact with our friends and neighbors? Will paranoia rule the day? Will we, as some have suggested, create an atmosphere of "community alertness" where we will all be on the lookout for the terrorist in our midst? Will our shared fear of terrorism unite us, as our shared fear of communism did a generation ago? While this solidarity in opposing a common enemy might be temporarily comforting, the fear and suspicion upon which it is based would create a unity that lacked compassion and understanding. Let us hope that the result of this crisis is not for us to trust each other less or to fall into the trap of condemning those who are different from us.

Might we instead use this time to become more engaged in our communities and more understanding of both our differences and our similarities? Can the good will that has been generated over the past three weeks be sustained in a way that deepens our commitment to each other and to our democracy? The stories of the compassion of our fellow citizens in the face of the events of September 11th have truly been overwhelming. Tens of thousands of pints of blood have been donated. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been contributed. Spontaneous vigils around mosques have prevented violence against innocent Muslims. Our capacity for kindness, generosity and good-will seems bottomless at this moment.

In thinking about our response to these incidents, we might remember how we respond to crises that are not man-made, those that are brought on by nature. My friends in California tell me that after a flood, or an earthquake or a mudslide, they are amazed to see their communities come together in a way that ignores the cultural, ethnic and socio-economic divides that may exist. For a brief period, people become one and recognize that they are united in their desire to aid those who have been hurt and rebuild what has collapsed. Unfortunately, it has proven impossible to bottle the good-will generated at those times, and these communities quickly find themselves living their lives, for better or worse, just as they had previously.

In this moment we should recognize that there are three possible paths for us to travel. We have a choice about how we will respond. We could become united around a shared fear and mistrust and hate. Or we could come together for just as long as it takes to get things 'back to normal." Or we could energize and transform our society into one where we are more understanding of each other, where we are more willing to help each other on a day-to-day basis, where we become engaged citizens in communities that cry out for our active involvement, where pluralism and inclusion are our watchwords and where trust and love trump fear and hate. The decision is ours to make.

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