Cynics Unlimited

Everyone remembers where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001

I was lying in bed, sick from one of the many illnesses that float about university dormitories. Ordinarily I would have been in class, but decided to turn on my “television” (which was actually a computer with a TV tuner card). CNN was on and showing one of the twin towers on fire. At the time the speculation was that a small plane had crashed into the building and that there might be a few deaths outside of the plane passenger list. The TV camera was still trained on the twin towers when, much to everyone’s shock, a second plane hit the other tower – and it was clearly a jetliner. Talk of accidents quickly turned into “America is under attack”

Quite honestly, “Looks like Osama Bin Laden” was the first words out of my mouth. The attack was consistent with his hit-and-dodge attacks in Kenya, Tanzania and the Persian Gulf. Each attack seemed to be progressively brutal and civilian-oriented. An attack on the enduring symbol of western commerce seemed like a logical next step for an organization like Al Qaeda. But the melee was hardly over – within the next hours, both towers would fall, the pentagon would be hit with an attack and another plane would go down before hitting any targets.

From my bedroom, Manhattan looked like hell on earth. As the first tower fell, I remembered the fact that one of my close schoolmates was doing his co-op term at the World Trade Center, and became even more anxious. 9/11 became very personal for me very quickly. It would be days before I heard from my schoolmate and his survival story was one of chance – he was actually supposed to be in the towers at the time but decided at the last minute to sleep in until 10:00am. He was prematurely awoken by a telephone call from a coworker that consisted of a single sentence: “Turn on the TV”.

After seeing the carnage, he, like hundreds of New Yorkers, rushed towards the towers to see how they could help. Some people were bringing food and towels for those that were injured in the two plane blasts. As the twin towers came in full view, his blood “ran cold” (in his words) as the first of two towers started to crumble to the ground. Most people around him stood frozen in shock until it was apparent that the growing outward wave of dust and debris was not going to subside, causing the most hardened New Yorkers to run for cover.

It didn’t even take a New York minute for American citizens to finger Middle Eastern terrorists for the attack, and the NYPD, already burdened with securing ground zero, rushed to form barriers between a minority of angry New Yorkers and the nearby Arab neighborhoods to which they were quickly advancing. In this detail lies a point about America’s response that often gets lost amid the debates on post 9/11 civil liberties: the US government and even some citizens initially worked furiously to protect middle-easterners from the angry mobs and discriminatory activity. For the most part, they were successful: in the coming weeks the world heard stories of police protecting middle eastern neighborhoods, Christian Church groups providing security at local mosques and citizens opening their homes to Muslim colleagues who were at risk for becoming victims of backlash.

Canada played a significant role in the early 9/11 response when Atlantic Canadians provided food and shelter to over 15,000 stranded Americans whose flights were immediately diverted (44 flights went to Nova Scotia alone). Police officers and firefighters from Canada also rushed to ground zero to help with the rescue and cleanup.

In the coming weeks, North Americans and indeed the world would re-fracture into the usual political/social groupings. The sorrow from the 9//11 attack was used for every cause from promoting nuclear war to severing ties with Israel. Conspiracy theorists reacted almost immediately in gathering evidence they believed pointed to the Bush administration’s prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks (if not worse). Christian fundamentalists, busy promoting their own brand of Jihad, saw their ranks swell at least temporarily. Other Christian personalities, like Jerry Falwell, cast the attacks as punishment from God for sinful behavior. Socialists used the attack as evidence of danger of America’s “imperialism” (a sentiment soon echoed by much of Europe and the Third World), while sleeper cells derived encouragement from carnage that affected far more than just American citizens.

Nonetheless, Americans and Canadians were able to forget their social/political differences and pull together during an unmeasured crisis. In a moment of terror, we became humans first and foremost, and exhibited a potent courage that, if properly analyzed by Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants, should have been the first sign that the West would not so easily surrender its humanity even the in the face of savagery.

Update: Removed references to “how” the fourth plane went down. Dick Cheney originally stated something on CNN far from the commonly-accepted story, but it would be difficult to prove so without consulting the credibility-killing “conspiracy theorists”