By Jennifer Nagorka, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX –
We were on a family vacation in Washington, D.C., when the suicide bombers struck London. The next day, I took an Amtrak Metroliner from Washington to New York City. The train left from Union Station, a restored turn-of-the-century rail palace with soaring, vaulted ceilings and polished terrazzo floors. Passengers bustled in the echoing space, while other visitors shopped and ate at the station's dozens of stores and cafes.
It was easy to imagine the carnage one bomb could cause there. It was hard to imagine any way to make the station perfectly safe.
Almost four years after 9/11, most Americans are resigned to thinking of themselves as targets. We understand that people out there somewhere hate us and would happily kill us. And we know that worrying won't change that fact. I never considered canceling my trip, or driving to Manhattan. Are you nuts? Drive in Manhattan? The London bombings were just another brushstroke in our redrawn national landscape.
Amtrak personnel had left "security notices" on each seat of the train, stating that passengers should expect to see more police and K-9 teams in and around trains and stations. Sure enough, a police dog was trotting through Penn Station when we arrived in Manhattan. He didn't look fierce, just glad to be out of the rain. The station was crowded and steamy and chaotic - New York City in miniature, underground. It was vibrant and vulnerable, but the vitality was winning. Instead of fear, I felt a wisp of joy: we survived. We took the worst the terrorists had to offer, mourned our dead, and kept going.
Of course, 9/11 was only round one for the United States. How will we react if there's a need for rapid, mass vaccinations against a biological threat? What will Americans do if gasoline supplies in one region suddenly dry up? Have we done what we can to make public transit safer from all sorts of catastrophes?
No politician or government can realistically promise to prevent all future terrorist attacks - and we shouldn't expect them to. A wise strategy would be to spend our money and effort on programs that offer a double benefit. For example, we need to improve the nation's public health infrastructure. Then we could quickly spot and contain an emerging epidemic, whether it's the result of a terrorist act or a completely random genetic mutation in a virus.
We also need to work, consciously and consistently, on achieving a common sense of purpose. The last presidential election showed that Americans are deeply, painfully divided. You can't respond effectively to disasters - natural or artificial - that way. We should consider a mandatory national service program to help young people understand their duties as citizens - before the responsibilities of career and family overwhelm them.
And we need to balance our warrior's fatalism with hope. We have to think long and hard before we divert so much of our national treasure into self-protection that there is no money left for scientific research, or building great libraries and museums, or sending young people to college. We have to nurture the future. Part of our response to terrorism must be endurance, part of it must be fortification, and part of it must be continuing to dream.
Jennifer Nagorka is a writer from Dallas. If you have opinions or questions about this commentary, call (214) 740-9338 or email us.