The banging on my studio door was not unusual on that day because I had just moved into a loft building where major renovations were still underway and I had no phone, no radio, not even main lighting Another workman, I thought, and I hoped it would be the plumber to set up my sink and water heater. But it was my daughter Clarisa instead. She seemed bit frantic and what was she doing here at 9am, away from her downtown office? She said, "Don't you know?". Over the next few moments she told me the news that I had not heard and we both were worried about Sarah, her sister, my other daughter, who often spent time at the Pentagon in her job as a research physicist at the naval Research Laboratory. We raced to my home where we tried to phone Sarah. All communication with D.C. and her office was was cut off. Was this now WWIII? Hours later we made contact with Sarah. She was safe. She had glanced out her office window, she reported, just as the great fireball rose over the Pentagon across the Potomac. It was unreal, she said, echoing the first remarks of thousands of others in New York and D.C, and then those of the the whole world. Sarah had evacuated the building with her co-workers but no plans were in place to protect them or the hordes of people pouring into the streets everywhere in D.C. No one was told where to go or what to do. Everywhere traffic was snarled to a standstill as it always is in any urban crises.
Today our big cities are on high alert. Gunboats patrol the Potomac. Every plane overhead is being watched. Is it on a usual course? Why is that plane flying so low? So many sirens. Cops everywhere. No smart terrorists would attack America today, the anniversary of 9-11. The response would likely enfold and unleash all of America's frustrations of the past decade, of whatever cause. The hate born on 9-11 has simmered much longer and hotter than the ruins of the Twin Towers. People would demand instant nuclear annihilation of whole regions and countries, no matter the cost of innocent lives or alarm among allies and enemies. The bomb, once again would be the terrible, mistaken panacea. Everyone needs peace. The patriots' slogan is "Never forget" but I'm a patriot too and I say we must forget hate altogether while remaining vigilant realists. WC
