9/11, Oil & Civility
As I listen to the shouting, finger-pointing, blaming, and anger, my thoughts go back to the morning of 9/11/2001. I was one of a very small group attending meetings that were to have included 34 Senators. The meetings were being held at a hotel on Capitol Hill, about a block from the Senate Office Buildings.
Like everyone else, we watched in horror as events unfolded on television, and rumors of other attacks on the White House and elsewhere in Washington spread rapidly from unknown sources. Those Senators already present were quickly whisked away to safer places, and the rest never came. We only learned later that, as noted in today’s Washington Post, “if United Flight 93 hadn’t left late, giving its passengers time to hear about the other attacks and retake control of the aircraft, its hijackers might have succeeded in the hitting the Capitol.” I will always be grateful to the true heroes on that plane.
One of my dominant memories of the day was the overriding calm and civility that I saw everywhere. From the crowd in the hotel lobby to the people on the street, virtually all I heard was silence. Not just no sirens, but no sounds. Even as I drove home hours later, there was no sound and drivers were courteous. From Capitol Hill, through the streets of Washington, and across the bridges into Virginia (not near the Pentagon), usually impatient Washington drivers made no sound and guided each other as I progressed on my 5-hour trip that should have taken 20 minutes. I kept thinking all that time that it was like driving in a library.
What a difference the years have made. The problem is not merely one Congressman calling the President a liar on the House floor, or the sniping from members of both political parties. It is not merely the anger and hostility that surround all of our politics. It is not merely that everything, like the oil spill, has become political.
It is the lack of civility all around us. Reasoned public debate has given way to shouting and even gun-carrying. Everyone seems to be unhappy about something, some possibly for good reason, and certainly everyone now has the technical means to let everyone else know their opinion on anything.
In the aftermath of 9/11, we rallied as a nation and displayed our finest traits as a people: patriotism and the perseverance to proceed toward a better future. Yes, the world changed that day, and it is changing again. Now, I hope that we can regain some of that fortitude and civility again. We’re going to need it in the days ahead.