|
Thursday, September 20, 2001
Cultivating the tragic 
| | In the United States, from pulpits and from government offices, there has been a remarkable and admirable refusal to blame Islam or to implicate American Arabs in the crimes of recent days. |
| | The American majority has not been so careful and free of jingoism in generations past. But that is only to say: Something is different now. More often than the mindless chant of "USA, USA," one hears Americans speak quietly, resolutely, of the future. And with a sense of the tragic... |
| | The tragic sense — as the Greeks taught us and Shakespeare, as older cultures understand — recognizes that there are times when a person has to act, not because he wants to or even believes his action will settle anything, but because he must. |
| | Tragic history leaves humans no choice. |
| | The whole piece is published by the Pacific News Service, which is an outstanding source of off-stream opinions. |
We can guess where the Church Lady stands on this thing
| | There's more on the smoking satan story (under "Making matters worse," below) here, here and here. |
Dysgrace
| | Windows on the World was at the top of the South Tower (Tower Two — the second one hit and the first to fall) in the World Trade Center. It was a landmark restaurant where many of us (myself included) have enjoyed one of the world's great dining experiences. A friend writes to tell me that all 70 workers from the breakfast shift at WoW are still missing, plus an unknown quantity of undocumented workers. |
The right thing
| | Left Bank and LaFolie, two (outstanding) Bay Area restaurants, are raising funds for World Trade Center food service workers and their families. Details are on the Left Bank home page. |
Respeaking of Civilization
Give widely
| | I just received this notification from United Airlines and thought I'd pass it along to other high-mileage flyers who might not be reading their promotional emails: |
| | If you would like to support relief efforts, you can donate Mileage Plus(R) miles to the American Red Cross or the September 11th Fund of the United Way of Greater New York. To make a donation of 1,000 miles or more, please call Mileage Plus Customer Service at 1-800-421-4655. |
| | I imagine this will be up at some point on the UAL Web site, but I don't see it yet. |
Remembering the big bang
| | The worst of times often brings out our best. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the newspaper business, which on Day One returned to the public trust is has always been. This is especially obvious at the nation's best paper, The New York Times. Example: This Sunday's New York Times Magazine is already online and it's a keeper. Go buy it when it hits the stands, if you can. Meanwhile, sample the goods here. Powerful pieces by Michael Lewis, Stephen King, Richard Ford, Sandeep Juahar, Richard Rhodes, Margaret Talbot and others. |
| | What we're witnessing here is the exposure of an economic imperative that has been there since the Dawn of Trade, but which we have lately forgotten. That's the Economics of Altruism, which arise from an awareness that we are not only in business for money. |
| | Business is about life. It's no accident that we say our business is "what we do for a living." |
| | Yet we can't do it alone. By its nature business is profoundly convivial. Social. Involved. It's not just about the bottom line. It's about relationship. In religious language, each is a calling. It's what we are called to do with each other and for each other, and not just for ourselves. |
| | When I read articles like this one (in the Times, naturally), about changes in fashion since last week, I begin to think that "The End of Business as Usual" we declared on the cover of The Cluetrain Manifesto has rather abruptly arrived. One paragraph from the Times piece: |
| | Many store executives also feel that the way they communicate with consumers might undergo certain shifts. "What is the appropriate way to conduct business?" Ronald L. Frasch, the president of Bergdorf Goodman, said. "How do you balance the social obligations you have as a store executive with the commercial obligations? Do we call up our customers about in-store events?" |
| | Well, yeah. Since you're getting to know your neighbors for the first time, you might as well do the same with your customers. Believe me, it won't be going out of fashion soon. Or ever. |
Brethrenhood
| | Before the President's speech last night, my sister (the retired Navy Commander) wrote me an email that I thought was worth sharing. With her permission, here it is: |
| | Old military adage: Hurry up, and wait. |
| | That's what the country is doing right now. And that is what the President has to get across tonight. It is the nature of war. |
| | I find the following eerily intriguing: HBO's WWII series Band of Brothers started last Sunday. Anyway, the juxtaposition of this series about the "Greatest Generation" and the extraordinary courage and sacrifices of ordinary people on 9-11 is uncanny. |
| | Here is a mini-series that has been made by dedicated individuals (Spielberg, Hanks and Stephen Ambrose) to remind an almost apathetic country of a time when the Everyman of America rose to an unheard of level of commitment and courage. And in no less than 36 hours after it was aired, the country was tested. And Everyman stepped up and proved that courage and strength and commitment is still alive in America. Band of Brothers is about a time of seemingly archaic patriotism, a emotion that has overflowed in the days since the attacks. |
| | There is another comparison here we would be wise to see: We now see WWII from our time and in its totality, looking back through Japan's surrender, the Bomb, campaigns won and lost, the logistic miracles of D-Day and the march across the Pacific. We read the book but always know the ending. But everyone who planned the war, joined the military or saw their loved one off to war while manning the home front, who fought and sacrifice, they did not know the ending. They had no guarantees of a victory, of estimated survival percentages, of economic security, or of how long it would take. Solders went off to war in 1941 and were gone 4 years! Children met their fathers for the first time when they were already walking and talking, if they had ever met them at all. |
| | And the country understood. And they joined, they gave, they pulled together and they prevailed and grew stronger. |
| | America needs to know that the same is being asked of us now. This is what the President must get across tonight - that this is open-ended. War is the right term; this is not a campaign, nor is it a battle or an action. Those words denote a specific force structure and geographically limited involvement. We're going to war, and we will be at war until we win. There are no guarantees of when it will be over, how many lives it will take, who will be affected or what America or the world will be like when it is over. |
| | We don't know the enemy, but the more countries and populations we bring in on our side, the less there will be for the "other" side. It isn't America that must win this war, but Mankind. Everyman is at war with Evil. |
| | But as Band of Brothers is trying to show, with all his faults and foibles, Everyman is extraordinary when roused and committed. |
| | It is just a shame that it is on Pay per View. I wonder if HBO would support the war by making it available? |
| | HBO's Band of Brothers page is here. |
Making matters worse
| | Well, it turns out that on September 17 I mentioned (erroneously, it turns out) that what befell the WTC towers was "an act of satan probably not covered by insurance policies." How that put my referers page on top I'm not sure. |
| | But I do know that there was in fact a picture of the World Trade Center fire that featured a satanic likeness amidst the smoke, because Dean Landsman mailed me a page from the Philadelphia Daily News featuring that picture under the headline "Bedeviled." |
| | I searched images.google.com and couldn't find it. Nor could I find it listed in the 7-day archives at the nespaper. Nor could I find it in a search for "bedeviled" in the paper's News Library (ten million articles strong!) for $1.95 apiece. |
| | So anyway, I have it. It's surely a copyrighted AP photo, so I'm not going to publish it. But if anybody can find it anywhere, I'll be glad to point to it. (And I do, under the Church Lady headline, above.) |
Coincidence?
Civilization Day
| | Between phone calls and other work I've been watching the President's speech. What stands out for me is the care he takes in making a distinction between the terrorists — Al Qaeda in particular — and everybody else. The bad guys here are a cancer on civilization, but he doesn't want to amputate any appendages or put the whole world on chemo. He wants to go in and destroy every cell. Directly. Selectively. Completely. |
| | Whether or not this is achievable, it's clear that this isn't a war between countries, peoples, religions or idealogies. It's a war between civilization and those who want to destroy it. |
| | This means we need to start caring about what we're protecting here. Is it just "freedom?" Obviously not. It's much more than that. But how much more? And of exactly what? |
| | My friend and priest Seán Olaoire (that's O'Leary in Gaelic, in case you were wondering) says "there are some truths so deep that only stories can tell them." What stories will we be telling? |
| | No stories about civilization and its enemies will ever be quite he same as they were before September 11, 2001. After that day, fantasies about the destruction of Earth's civilization were no longer fantasies, and ceased to serve as entertainment. |
| | In the movie Independence Day, we saw the White House and various skyscrapers destroyed by vast space ships directed by malevolent alien beings. On 9-11 we saw the World Trade center destroyed by two passenger planes bearing the names American and United, directed by malevolent human beings. |
| | What we are fighting is the worst of human nature: a disease of the heart. |
| | Civilization should express the best of human nature, and a triumph of the heart. |
| | So I modestly suggest two more names for 9-11. The first is suggested many writers who live in New York and without direction have been using the same term: Day One. |
| | The other is suggested by the question, Day One of what? |
| | September 11, 2001 was Day One of Civilization as it ought to be. This is the civilization we were on our way to building when terrorists stopped us in our tracks and made us think again. |
| | Before that day, Civilization still included those people. Now it doesn't. |
Remembering
| | I missed the President's speech, though by all major media accounts it was a perfect performance. It needed to be. |
| | Now I'm watching New York's new fire chief, who replaces the former chief, who was killed with so many others when the second World Trade Center tower collapsed. It's powerful television: profiles of two good men, golf buddies, best friends who risked their lives, routinely, together. Two heroes, one martyred. |
| | I grew up in a neighborhood thick with law enforcement professionals. Next door was a New Jersey Highway patrol officer. Two more doors away, a local fireman. Across the street, a New York City detective. Cops and firemen were more than good guys. They were your friends' dads. |
| | With few exceptions they were also World War II veterans. Most of them belonged to the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. They always marched in parades. |
| | The Vietnam war caused huge disagreements between many of these men and their sons. In that war, the flag became an issue. If you were for the war, for "my country, right or wrong," you were a flag-waver. If you weren't, you weren't. |
| | After that the flag became a symbol of The Right. |
| | But 9-11 changed all that. Regardless of politics, all Americans were hurt when those towers fell. The whole world was hurt as well, but these acts of terror were directed against us: our people, our government, our greatest city. |
| | I was gratified by how few of my friends on The Left were made uncomfortable by all the flag-waving, by nearly everybody. Finally, it felt like the Fifties again. It was okay to treasure what made America a Good Place, and to appreciate deeply the everyday heroism of those who work, usually without thanks, for us all. Police. Fire fighters. Teachers. |
| | Today Joyce brought home three t-shirts with American flags that say "God Bless America." She bought them from local fire departments collecting proceeds for relief in New York, where hundreds of fire fighters died trying to save thousand of others. More than six thousand died. God knows how many these heroes saved first. We'll wear our new shirts proudly. Here's a picture we took at sunset last night. |
There are responses to this message:
Copyright 2009 The Doc Searls Weblog
|
