Americans’ strength found in united stand
Editor’s note: This is a reprint of the 缅北禁地 editorial published on Sept. 12, 2001.
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
Years from now American children will open U.S. history books and be forced to memorize this date.
In the days, weeks and months to come, we will be writing the text from which they will learn. The story that eventually unfolds depends on how well, we as a nation, draw upon our united strengths.
Not since Pearl Harbor has the United States suffered such a surprise attack of such magnitude. During the past decade we have witnessed defining tragedies: Americans held captive in Iran, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, an earlier bombing of the World Trade Center and a handful of terrorist attacks on U.S. targets abroad.
Never though has the fear been so far-reaching that it touched so deeply all of our lives. Never before has a terrorist attack interrupted a Fayette County Commissioners’ meeting with word of a plane hijacked over our county’s airspace nor has terrorism spread its diseased tentacles into our own backyard in Somerset County.
Fear ran rampant Tuesday morning as networks broke to show the first live shots of the World Trade Center after the first hijacked plane ripped through a tower. As smoke billowed from the building a second aircraft came into view and Americans watched in horror as it exploded into the second tower.
Still shocked, and moments after President George W. Bush spoke to the nation assuring that we will track down and punish these terrorists, we were rocked again as a plane crashed into the Pentagon, the paragon of our military defense. The White House was evacuated and as more threats, whether perceived or real, spread we learned of more missing planes. What’s next, we wondered, although not for long as minutes later came reports that a commercial airplane had crashed near Somerset.
Disbelief again, until finally our fears were confirmed: United Airlines Flight 93, carrying 45 passengers and crew members had indeed crashed.
For the first time in U.S. history all commercial air traffic was shut down. Most government offices from the Capitol to city hall closed. Businesses and schools let out early.
After the shock wore off the immediate response was to check on loved ones, especially those who were traveling or who live and work in New York or Washington, D.C.
As a nation we reacted with the systems we have put in place to deal with tragedies. The experts who seek out terrorists to local emergency crews called to a Somerset strip mine to help bag bodies.
The death toll will be tremendous, perhaps in the tens of thousands. By the count’s end fatalities in one short hour of American history might surpass those over the course of the Vietnam War.
As a nation we must grieve and grieve together. We must support each other and offer encouragement to the men and women whose lives are now charted on a course to deal with the wreckage and track down the enemy, an enemy who at this point isn’t even identified. Unlike Pearl Harbor when the enemy was easily recognizable as Japan and immediate retaliation could be launched, this is different, leaving all of us less certain of our safety.
Undoubtedly during the coming weeks and months, we will spend much time and energy discussing why our anti-terrorist agencies didn’t see this coming and how was it permitted for airline security to be breached. These are questions that do need answered so that better tracking and security can be implemented. Already some high-ranking officials question whether our country has become too lax in gathering intelligence.
There will also be the small-minded among us, quick to treat all Arab Americans as if they are traitors. We should remember the lessons of World War II when we reacted against Asian Americans and German Americans with the same disdain. We need to trust that those guilty of orchestrating this terror upon America will be held accountable and not give in to the tendency to condemn an entire race.
We must draw upon our faith in the vast resources available to the U.S. government to retaliate against the guilty and not individually cast a pall upon the innocent.
We must draw upon our spiritual faith to guide us through. As testament to how powerful and moving faith can be, within hours local churches scheduled prayer services.
We must not lose sight of the many heroes and heroic acts that will also emerge as stories are recounted in the days to come.
These are the lessons that we want schoolchildren to learn, not only of the terrible tragedy that stunned all of us but of how we emerged a stronger nation.