« McCloskey podcast | Main | Fed officials optimistic about growth »
September 11, 2006
Personal reflections on 9/11
I have been thinking about what kind of post to write today. I didn't post on the 4th anniversary of 9/11, and I wasn't yet blogging on the 3rd. I remember thinking last year that I would save it for next year. It's next year. But what can I say that hasn't been said?
Perhaps there is value in saying what has already been said. Take a look at posts from Russell Fox, David Tufte, and John Palmer. Each one a personal reflection, each one expressing thoughts or retelling events that we have heard before. But each one as individual as a fingerprint. As we stop to remember a moment of profound national grief, we take heart in the fact that we were (and are) not alone. Our neighbors went through similar emotions. In some small way that is comforting.
It was a beautiful day in New York as well as in Illinois. Indeed, the clear weather across the country was instrumental in allowing air traffic controllers to clear the sky as quickly as they did that day. I watched the morning's events from the perspective of a licensed private pilot and aviation enthusiast. When I saw the amount of smoke and the size of the hole in the tower, I knew it was a large jet. It was on the north side of the tower only about 1000 feet off the ground. There is no approach path that takes you that low over the southern tip of the island. The weather was perfect. This was no accident. When the 2nd one hit, we all knew it was coordinated.
By noon the television coverage was becoming repetitive and speculative. With no training in aviation or engineering, most of the talking heads were in way over their heads. I could take no more, and I had a class to teach. It was a course on international monetary economics. We talked about the event itself and discussed what the Fed would do (lower interest rates) and wondered how long it would take for Wall St. to get back up and running. There was little worry among my class that this would trigger a global financial crisis. Fortunately we were right.
As I drove home I passed by long lines at the gas pumps in Peoria. My route home on highway 24 paralleled the only contrails in the sky. Air Force One and its fighter escort were heading back to Washington from Offutt AFB. Knowing what had happened and seeing those contrails gave me an eerie feeling. It was a connection to the horrible events of that day that I could see with my own eyes, not on television. Here, right before my eyes, the president was being escorted back into what was for all practical purposes a war zone by aircraft armed and ready for battle.
My gas tank was nearly empty, so unlike many of the drivers in line back in Peoria who were just topping off before prices jumped, I would have to fill up. I was the only one filling up at the gas station close to home. They had not raised prices (at least not that I could tell), and they were not running out of gas. That night my wife and I drove back to Peoria to church and passed by numerous gas stations with bags over the pumps, thus providing me with a real-world example of response to uncertainty that I use in my principles classes to this day.
And it was that uncertainty that enveloped the country as night fell. Rumors flew everywhere. False alarms caused evacuations in other buildings. What would 9/12 bring?
Although 9/12 did not bring more carnage, we know we are still vulnerable. Madrid and London stand as reminders of that fact. But the truth is that life on earth has never been guaranteed. Tomorrow is uncertain, just as it was on 9/11/2001. The next life-changing disaster may be a terrorist attack, or it may be an earthquake or tsunami. It is prudent to take steps to protect ourselves from all of those calamities. A good security screening program is as important as a tsunami warning system. But banning fingernail clippers from airplanes makes about as much sense as keeping people a thousand feet back from the water at all times just in case of a tsunami. Finding the right balance is everything, and our record has been hit-and-miss. We need a renewed call for open, honest, and fact-based dialogue on these issues.
We can learn to live with uncertainty without being ruled by fear.
Posted by William Polley at September 11, 2006 1:25 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.williampolley.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/592
Comments
Bill,
A very touching, informative, and helpful narrative. Thanks.
Posted by: EclectEcon at September 11, 2006 6:37 PM
I remember Pearl Harbor. After 5-1/2 years the war was won. FDR did not tell us to "go shopping" He told us to prepare for all out war. My brother served in the 8th Air Force in England. Family friends as well as family members were drafted. I remember rationing of food, gas and other civilian goods.
If GWOT is an existenalist war of civilizations why the hell arent we gearing up for it?
There seems 9/11 is used for a lot of "Political Theater" but not much else. There is still a 15 acre hole in the ground in NYC.
Posted by: dilbert dogbert at September 12, 2006 7:18 PM