In a diary posted previously in this forum I had the audacity, according to some, to suggest that the world changed on September 11, 2001. I was surprised at the number of ostensibly progressive people who turned breast-beating reactionaries, proclaiming that their world never changed, suggesting that vigilance in a dangerous world equates with surrendering to fear. Bullshit.
Yes, a post-9/11 world may be a meme, but what is a meme if not a truism told over and over again until you are sick of hearing it? The world did change after the events of 9/11 and saying it didn’t doesn’t make it any less true.
Did you take your shoes off at the airport before 2001? Can you still meet your party at the gate? Have you always emptied your pockets or passed through a metal detector before entering a government building? Like it or not, most of us are living in a different world than the one in which we grew up. We watch for unattended packages. We keep an eye on strangers. That’s not cowardice, that’s common sense. When I was growing up children were often left unattended in the toy department of a department store to look at toys or in the television department to watch TV while their parents shopped. Would you consider doing that today? The world changes and we adjust accordingly. You can beat your chest and proclaim your invincibility to the world, but you’re still going to get frisked entering the ballpark.
One armchair warrior boasted that yesterday’s bombing in Boston “didn’t hurt Americans.” Wrong, superhero, it hurt more than 140 Americans, some of them so badly they died, and many hundreds if not thousands of their families and friends.
It’s alright to admit that Americans, and America, can be hurt. It’s okay to acknowledge that we bleed and we cry. That we posses an indomitable national spirit as well as a kick-ass military doesn’t mean we are impervious to pain and anguish. We get knocked down, then, yes, we get back up and get busy. But we always understand that someone may be looking to knock us down again another day, and we do our best to prevent it, not ignore the possibility.
I’ll admit I was taken aback at the level of can’t-touch-this jingoism on a supposedly progressive website. After all, it’s this sort of star-spangled hubris that gave us the sight of George W. Bush popping and locking on the deck of an aircraft carrier in front of a banner reading “Mission Accomplished.” It’s the sort of wang-dang-doodle that makes Ted Nugent unzip his trousers and stick his crossbow in your face at every opportunity. It’s the sort of this-takes-care-of-that smugness that leads some politicians to pretend that crimes like the Patriot Act make the world safe for Mom, apple pie and Halliburton. It’s the sort of attitude that has our enemies from the Middle East to North Korea to Oklahoma City to the streets of Boston itching to blow us up in the first place.
The world changed on September 11, 2001, and the events of April 15, 2013, make it clear to anyone who doubted that that change is permanent. We can make ourselves safer, I wrote, but we can never be completely safe. Those days are gone and they won't be back, at least not anytime soon. We can defeat an enemy army but we can never defeat every individual who wishes us harm. And so we must never let up our guard, we must always be vigilant, we must always be prepared.
Freedom requires vigilance, not complacency.
Caution is not cowardice.
Admitting reality is not admitting defeat.
As an Army Special-Ops veteran of my acquaintance puts it, “If you think you’re invincible, you’re not brave, you’re stupid. If you don’t respect that every shadow and every bump in the night could kill you, one of them will.”