September 11, 2006

It’s difficult to believe that it’s been five years since the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. I think the media is luxuriating a little too much in the anniversary this year. Perhaps it's because mother nature didn't supply them a hurricane disaster that they could blubber over and the media feels that it isn't doing its job unless it's trying to scare the hell out of us about something. For instance, I’m getting a little tired of hearing the constant argument about do we “feel” safer as opposed to are we in fact safer.

Obviously we’re safer. We would all be complete idiots if some things haven’t gotten a little safer in the aftermath of the attack. If nothing else they’re checking my shoes for explosives at airports and as little as that may be, it certainly counts for something doesn't it? Should I suddenly start hearing the chant "God is great" in my head and decide to pack some plastic explosives into my Nikes in order to take out a 747, they're going to prevent that from happening. At least I think they would prevent that from happening.

Just as obviously we feel less safe since we now know with absolute certainty that it can happen here. I feel less safe but I’m pretty darn good at not letting it affect my day to day activities. I decided a long time ago that if I allowed myself to be afraid of all the things I could be afraid of, or of all the things our society of fear would like me to be afraid of, I wouldn't be able to do anything but be afraid. Screw that.

I got stuck in Fullerton California in 2001. I had flown from Newark to South Orange airport the evening of the 10th and was greeted at 0700 the next morning by an overly excited co-worker staying at the same hotel with news of the events transpiring in New York and Washington. I saw the collapse of the towers on television from my hotel room.

The remainder of the day consisted of a series of reports filtering in about individuals lost on the aircraft or unaccounted for in the towers. It’s difficult to accomplish much in a business meeting when every few hours someone sticks his head into the room to announce someone else who was on one of the planes even if you’re not personally acquainted with the individual.

Eventually our attention focused on how, and when, we might be getting home. The hotel and rental agency told us that our rooms and cars would be available for the duration so we at least had no concerns there. Neither the hotel nor Avis Rental charged for the extra days.

There were five of us stranded in Fullerton. Two were from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, two from Scottsdale, Arizona and one poor schnook (me) from New Jersey. I was about as far away from home as I could get and still be in the continental U.S.

The two guys from Scottsdale decided to drive home and offered to take us along thinking that it might be easier to get a flight out of Phoenix than LAX. We decided against that since we at least had someplace to stay in California but had no such guarantee in Phoenix. Next we got a call from two other guys from Ft. Wayne that were stuck in California who had decided to drive to Indiana. They offered to drop me off in either Chicago or Indianapolis where I might be able to get a train. This didn’t sound like a real good idea either and again we decided to stay put.

In the final analysis it didn’t take all that long to get back it just seemed long. All of us got on flights Friday morning by which time I was on a first name basis with the Continental booking agents at both Orange County and LAX. I was on the first Continental flight out of John Wayne Airport and based upon the advice being loudly broadcast over the TV, I arrived about 5 hours before the flight or around 4 AM. It took an hour to return the rental car because they searched every conceivable place in the car, under the car, in the trunk, in my bag and on me that you could imagine. If I had suddenly woken up that morning and decided that Allah was God, Muhammad was his prophet, Satan America needed to be chastised and those 72 virgins sounded like a pretty good deal, they at least had that contingency covered.

After finally getting rid of the car I confronted THE LINE which stretched out of the terminal building and down the block. Lucky for me that was the American Airlines line. The Continental desk was completely empty so it took me all of 10 minutes to get to the gate. Four hours later I boarded a very full plane and five hours after that landed in the ghost town that was Newark Airport. Let me tell you how eerie a feeling it was to walk through what is normally a beehive of activity when it is virtually empty. We were the only passengers working our way through the terminal.

So I managed to make it home and found out about more losses in and around town. The father of a child in my wife’s 3rd grade class was killed as was the son of the interim principal at the school where she worked. All of the small towns in Northern New Jersey suffered losses. Like the man said, after 9/11 the Red States put magnets on their cars and the Blue States put coffins in the ground.

Five years have passed and I find myself annoyed at the constant drum beat in the media of how everything changed on 9/11. For many people, especially those who lost spouses, parents or children, everything did change, but for most of us things didn’t really change. Our perceptions were simply brought more into line with reality. We’re not immune from the insane acts of fanatics driven by extreme political beliefs or extreme religious beliefs and we never have been.

In the 60’s and 70’s the danger was from radical left wing organizations or those who claimed to be radical left wing organizations. In the early 21st century the danger is from right wing fundamentalist religious groups of both the Islamic and Christian varieties. Islamic fundamentalists crash planes into buildings and send suicide bombers into restaurants and hotels. Christian fundamentalists bomb abortion clinics and kill gays. At least the Muslim terrorists have the courtesy to die while they’re committing acts of terrorism; the Christian fundamentalists always seem to figure out a way to survive and continue to be a wart on society's rear end.

Ok, enough complaining and moaning. Perhaps some day we’ll all grow up enough to realize that there’s no reason to kill each other. If there is a Sky Daddy he must spend an awful lot of time weeping.