Day: September 11, 2002

Note: I will be continuing to post during the day today, but new entries will appear below this one, not at the top of the page as normal.
One year ago today the world changed not at all, but our comfortable perception of it shattered forever. And now, those of us who survived — who were spared — find ourselves here, a year older; perhaps slightly wiser; grasping for the right words to honor those we have lost; the right gestures to express our sorrow. To find some way to give meaning to an event beyond comprehension at a human scale; an act so monstrously powerful that in a moment, it cleaved history irrevocably into before and after.
What rituals are appropriate to commemorate the memory of thousands of your fellow citizens murdered on live television as the world watched?
What words can we say; what symbols can we invoke that that can possibly lend meaning to an act of barbarism so grotesque that in its rejection of life; its utter, ultimate futility it defies the very concept of civilization itself?
The task seems impossible. Were there any alternative, the wise course would be to yield; withdraw from the field entirely, and leave the inexplicable unexplained.
There is no alternative. We are here; they are gone, and we are left to make sense of it. And there is still much work to be done.
And so, here I am. To post nothing today would be its own statement, would it not? And not the one I’d care to make. And so… I make my own attempt at meaning, and in my hubris, hope that perhaps I can shed some light into the darkness.
What do I expect on this day?
I fear that our remembrances this year will be dominated by resignation and passivity; will avoid the hard reality that the deaths of our fellow citizens were not accidents, but rather deliberate acts of murder by an enemy whose forces are still at large, and continue to covet American blood.
As you watch today’s ceremonies, ask yourself: if you did not know the truth, could the speech you are watching; the ceremony you are witnessing, be equally appropriate if those two towers had collapsed in an earthquake?
If the answer is “yes”, then my fears have been borne out.
Perhaps I will be proven wrong, but the track record up until this point is not good. We seem to be embracing the role of victim; not just commemorating it, but celebrating it. We are in danger of remembering what occurred a year ago today as a tragedy that just “happened”.
But what is being overwhelmed in the cult of victimhood is that forty men and women refused to accept their role as passive victims. They saw the face of the enemy; they learned the evil it had done already and the work it still had left to be done on that day.
And they said “no more”. They drew the line: this far, and no farther.
Flight 93.
And suddenly, there it is. Amid the senselessness of that day, a clarity appears: a meaning that can be drawn from the death and madness.
The conflict we face now did not begin last September. Whether you define the war against Islamic fascism as beginning in 1979, or in 1993, it had been with us for years; we simply failed to acknowledge that there were indeed fanatics who were sworn to kill us. And so, as horrible as the loss of life was in the Towers and at the Pentagon, as events were unique only in degree, not in kind.
But something unique did happen that awful day. Something the murderers did not expect; something they had not planned.
We began to fight back.
It deserves a name of its own. Whether you call it the “Battle of Shanksville”, the “Battle of Flight 93”, or just “The Turning Point”, it was an event inexorably tied to — and yet distinct from — the black sorrow of the rest of that day. And it should not be subsumed under the easy grief that we have come to associate with “9/11”.
For it marked the first time in this war that Americans had fought back. In those few scant minutes after the first hijackings, American society finally woke up, analyzed the threat, and acted. Forty people gave their lives in the effort, but the battle was won. There would be no third target on that day; the only harm that Flight 93 would do would be to a deserted field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Years from now, I hope the emphasis with which we commemorate the events of this year past will have changed. The loss of life and grief should not be forgotten or minimized. But I think that given time, and perspective, it will become clearer that the event that we should remember most keenly on this day is not the massive loss of life that the terrorists inflicted on us.
It is that one, small battle that occurred over the skies of Pennsylvania, where a group of unarmed American civilians stared their murderers in the face, and in refusing to quietly accept their fate, earned our nation its first victory in this war.
Driving yesterday, I was listening to NPR’s Talk of the Nation. In the midst of a panel discussion on American Empire, the inevitable comparison to Rome was raised. And one guest, Victor Davis Hanson of California State University, was asked of the fall of that great empire, and how it had been dragged down by its foes. He said this:
“The problem wasn’t the number of enemies. It was the attitude of the people… there was a level of lethargy and there were a lot of people who were asking themselves ‘What is it to be a Roman’? And they didn’t have an answer for that… When a culture doesn’t believe that their civilization is unique, or it’s worth fighting for, then it ceases to exist.”
I have faith that we, as a nation, will not succumb to the malaise that doomed the Romans. Our time may come: but not now. Not yet.
But the risk is there. If we fail to remember the victory of this day last year — if we fail to recognize that we must choose between the cult of victimhood or the brave example of the heroes on Flight 93 — then we may well lose “what it is to be an American”.
To my fellow citizens: I ask you to remember this day not just as a time of mourning, but as a celebration of victory. A small triumph; won at a price far too high; but a victory nonetheless. The first, we may hope, of many to come. A turning point in a war that has been waged against us for years; a war that we did not choose, that we do not relish, but one that has been brought upon us. A war that we now find it our responsibility and duty to finish.
To those who lost loved ones on that day: Should any of you read these words, I can only say that my grief is yours. Nothing I can write here will erase your loss; it would be arrogance and presumption for me to try. I can only hope and wish that each of you will find your own way to move forward with your lives, and to remember those that you lost.
And to those who attacked my nation and murdered my countrymen, I say: Hide well. Find the dark places where your empty souls can take solace in the absence of the light. Enjoy your victories where you may.
Because we are coming for you. And no matter how many battles you win; no matter how you have wounded us — how you will wound us — you will lose this war.
We have cleared a special place in the dustbin of history for Islamic fascism; tucked gently between the strident, shrill cries of Nazism and the sickly-sweet lies of Communism. It is waiting for you, and it will not have to wait long.
The brave Americans on Flight 93 were the first to see your evil for what it was; were the first to be willing to wager their cherished lives to defy your worship of death; were the first to defeat you in battle. They will not be the last.

Devon: “Looking at the next 250 years I can see only one way out. We actually need world peace. We can no longer tolerate tyranny. It is a matter of survival. Only when all the countries of the world bar their gates to pirates can we achieve a measure of security.”
Jim Schwab: “I’ve been rather critical as of late of the ‘Invade Iraq NOW!’ stance, and I still am. I however am in no way critical of the ‘wipe out the terrorists’ stance. I support this fully… I want Al-Queada wiped out so our lives are safe and more importantly, the lives of our children and their children are spared from an atrocity such as this.”
Nick Denton: “I’ve put aside the New York Times, and spent most of the morning browsing Glenn Reynolds from this time last year… Foreigners forget: the US may be a young country, but it is an old democracy. And the foundation of that democracy is, not the formal separation of powers, but a race-memory which emerges in these posts from twelve months ago.”
Ken Layne: “It’s nerve-wracking in a way we’re used to, this waiting for the next strike. Earthquakes come to mind. We know they’ll happen, but we don’t know when or where. But earthquakes are just geology. Earthquakes don’t murder pilots in the sky and drive those planes into skyscrapers full of people. Earthquakes don’t target Jews at LAX. ”
Lynn Sislo: “One year after the event the shock has passed. My range is mostly submerged but surfaces frequently when I read more details about the events and the people involved or when I read what masquerades as rational thought, telling us that it was America’s fault, America deserved it, or that we have no right to mourn our own loss when there is suffering elswhere in the world.”

Not to bite the hand has fed me, but based on their choice of a lead story today, I am forced to conclude that the editors of Salon believe that the most important thing to be speaking about on this day is the threat John Ashcroft poses to civil liberties.
I find this odd.

Simon: “Ezekiel 25:17 – We are the righteous men, the shepherds. The House of Saud demonstrates themselves to be evil men. The oppressed people of the world looking to us for freedom are the weak, the lost children. And those that that attempted to poison and destroy our brothers, well, we’ve laid a lot of vengeance upon them in Afghanistan, and we’re about to pay them a visit in their new homes in Iraq.”
Jay Reding: “To all those who perished… you shall always be remembered. To those who fight so that we may be free… you shall always be honored. To those who would harm this great nation…Justice is coming…”
WeekendPundit: “At 8:45 AM precisely, I spoke these words to my fellow employees, my friends, my fellow Americans… ‘We saw our tragedy bring us together rather than humble us. We did not tremble in fear as our enemies had hoped, but joined together, continued living our lives, worked to heal the wounds, and saw each day as a blessing instead of something to be endured…'”
Jason Rylander: “For me, it is always in music that I turn for comfort. Music is the one eternal sentiment, the medium through which the human and the divine meet…Whatever shall befall us individually and as a nation, let the blessings of love, music, and the memories of lives well lived be always among us. Be safe and godspeed.”
Jason Rubenstein: “To the men & women in uniform, some of whom are friends, or acquaintances, or fans who buy my music, all I can say is thank you.”

Yourish (via a perfect morning): “The overwhelming refrain I’ve heard, from literally everyone I’ve spoken to about 9/11: It doesn’t matter what is asked of us. We will do whatever it takes to end this threat. We want to be left in peace. Take these cancers out of our world and let’s move forward.”
Andrew Olmsted: “We can take today to mourn. We have that luxury. But tomorrow we must return to war, for our enemies will not wait for us to find and destroy them.”
Sydney Smith: “God never promised us a world without pain and suffering. We don’t live in paradise, after all. He only promised to be with us always, our comfort and our hope – our comfort and our hope that there’s a better world in the life to come. That “life to come” doesn’t necessarily have to be the afterlife. It can mean the life to come in this world, too. Maybe, in the grander scheme of things, the events of 9/11 and whatever wars they spawn, are a movement towards that better life – toward the elimination of despotism and tyranny, and toward a universal recognition of the rights of man. You don’t have to believe in God to find hope and comfort in that idea.”
Mike Hendrix: “The sympathy from the rest of the world was genuine, I think. The goodwill and courage of the free world is intact, or so I hope and believe. I could be wrong, sure, but today I choose to celebrate that goodwill and to hope for its continuation in spite of the cramping, restricting effect of mere politics. So herewith, a few photos from around the world taken immediately following 9/11…”
Glenn Frazier (via a perfect morning): “I spent all of Tuesday, September 10, 2002, trying to reach back into the past, to pull up something appropriate for the coming anniversary of the September Atrocity. After all these months, after all the words I’ve typed, you’d think I’d have something to say. At least, I thought at first it’d be easy to come up with the appropriate words…”

The Youngest: “On September 11, 2001, four hijackers siezed United Airlines Flight 93 and turned it in the direction of Washington, D.C…Only God knows where the hijackers would have directed their attack, or how many more innocent lives would have been lost. Only God knows what national icon would have been destroyed. Only God knows, because 40 men and women said, “You shall not pass.”, and earned a place in history next to Leonidas and the 300.”
a small victory: “no ordinary day : other voices – [A]ll of the quotes below are excerpts from comments. You can read the full comments in the post below. I’ll be adding more as the day goes on. I’ve taken some of the longer emails I received and posted them here. I encourage you to read each and every entry in full, even if you don’t do it all today. They are heartfelt and heartbreaking, they are sad and hopeful. I spent most of my night crying while I read through each one of them. Thank you to everyone who participated…”
Dr. Manhattan: “I found (via a commenter on Little Green Footballs) a television archive site which has portions of the live TV coverage of the attacks from numerous sources. I personally watched this clip from ABC’s Good Morning America. I was struck by the following two feelings: 1) How utterly shallow and stupid the show was before the news broke; and 2) Wishing that the stupidity and shallowness would continue, rather than be blown away by the intrusion of the horrible reality that could no longer be ignored…”
Eric S. Raymond: “…the war is far from over. Islamic terrorism has not been repudiated by the ulema, the college of elders who prescribe the interpretation of the Koran and the Hadith. The call to violent jihad wired into the foundations of Islam has not yet been broken or tamed into a form civilization can coexist with. Accomplishing that is the true challenge that faces us, one greater and more subtle than merely military victory.”
Scott Koenig: “I wasn’t planning to post anything on the various commemorations and memorial services today — but this morning I saw something that changed my mind. I was getting ready to go to work, just like a year ago, and the television was on. Donald Rumsfeld was giving an address at the Pentagon memorial. The camera panned through the crowd as Rumsfeld spoke of the survivors, and settled for a moment on a man wearing a Stetson hat, with scars on his face and neck. I instantly recognized him as a college classmate, Kevin Shaeffer…”

Dean, Cuz: “[W]e must not forget those who died early in this conflict. Our soldiers in Mogadishu, our sailors on the USS Cole, our embassy staff in Africa, and the victims of the first WTC attack. If we had responded more appropriately to these attacks on our nation and our sovereignty, their deaths would not have been in vain. Instead, our weak kneed, half-assed responses to blatant acts of war encouraged our enemies, and led to September 11. Now is the time to remember these events, stiffen our resolve, and fight the fight. We must finish it for good this time.”
Spoons: “Even a year later, it’s impossible for me to wrap my mind around the enormity of what happened last September. That’s why I’ve decided to think about just one person that the terrorists murdered that day. I don’t know this person: I just scanned the list of victims and found the name that was closest to my own. Today I’m going to think about Jennifer Lynn Kane.”
Terry Oglesby: “R E M E M B E R .”
Lionel Mandrake: “We are at war ladies and gentlemen – lest we forget, or take notice of those that portray 9/11 as a tragedy or a disaster.”
Dawn Olsen: ” I am free. I am lucky. I am an American.”

Wasn’t planning to break off topic today, but a look at this:

Sep. 11, 2002
ARAFAT’S CABINET FORCED TO RESIGN
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramallah
In a major blow to Yasser Arafat, his 21-member cabinet was forced to resign Wednesday to avoid being ousted by parliament in a vote of no-confidence.
The showdown between the parliament and Arafat marked the most serious challenge to the Palestinian leader since he returned from exile eight years ago to take the helm of the Palestinian Authority…
Just moments before lawmakers were to hold the vote Wednesday afternoon, cabinet ministers submitted their resignations to Arafat. The Palestinian leader accepted the resignation, making a vote unnecessary. A majority of legislators speaking Wednesday said they would not approve the cabinet.

Hmph!

Good morning all. It’s that day.
Yes, I have a piece with my thoughts coming. It’s not quite there yet… but soon. Stay tuned.
I am filled with a complete lack of interest in viewing the day’s events on television. I fear the overpackaged, airbrushed and “appropriate” remembrences that I’m sure will overwhelm the normally rational voices that make up my daily radio streaming diet.
But I find myself very interested to hear what my fellow webloggers have to say on this day.
I was tempted briefly by the idea of trying to capture as many sentiments as possible and post links to them here, but quickly realized that idea was redundant; many others, I’m sure, will do so. For starters, you should visit Perfect Morning. And then perhaps keep an eye on Martin’s page, where he is keeping a running list of links in his navbar.
So: No grand claims or attempts at comprehensiveness. But I think I’ll highlight those that speak to me most throughout the day, nonetheless. It is something to do. And on this day, that seems more important that usual.
Here’s a start.
Stephen Green: “Life goes on, gets better. The War sees setbacks and victories. I don’t have to sleep to the news anymore.Thanks to fellow bloggers, readers, family, and my bride, I don’t worry, get morose, or wallow in pity. But I still dread the phone at eight A.M.”
Patrick Nielsen Hayden: “Have a good 11th. Turn off your television. Light a candle. Be kind.”
Glenn Reynolds: “I’ve thought about what to do to observe the anniversary of last year’s atrocities, and I’ve concluded that the main thing I can do is to keep on blogging…Fancy memorial pages aren’t what I’m good at. (Go here for one of those.) So while I’m going to post a couple of retrospective items, I plan to spend today thinking about today, and tomorrow — not last year.”
Andrew Ian Dodge: “I am not going to stop posting because of the date, however I shall only be making this post on the subject. I will be paying my respects with a decent bottle of wine. I shall raise my glass and raise a toast to those who died. It is the way I ended that terrible day a year ago.”
Joe Katzman: “It is a time of war. The question before us – the only real question – is whether we will prolong its bitter duration and human cost by failing to acknowledge the obvious. The true monument to those we have lost is not self-pity. It is victory. Then, and only then, we may find some time of peace.”