Fear and Loathing in the U. S. of A.

written on 12 September 2001

I had two major reactions to the news of highjacked airliners crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I was horrified that it had happened. And I wanted revenge on "them"... whatever group had done it.

I was not alone. Terror and anger seized most of us. In the aftermath of the attacks, we took mutual comfort in our shared fear, and drew strength from our shared outrage.

But in the long term, these reactions could be our undoing as a society. Because these terrorists set out to promote their beliefs, and the twin pillars of Terrorism are fear and hatred. If we give in to fear... if we give in to hatred... we've lost.

Fear is the first and most obvious reaction we need to get beyond.

It paralyzes us and limits the freedom we cherish so much. This applies to more than just renewed fears of flying, and of our safety in public places and when traveling abroad. It applies to the way we live our lives day to day. We fear certain parts of town. We fear our neighbors. We fear opening up to people. We fear being ourselves.

We need to reject that fear.

That's how I've chosen to live for many years, and people sometimes ask me how I can be so "fearless". I live in a neighborhood that some people (mostly those who've never stopped for longer than a stoplight here) consider "unsafe". I'm an openly - sometimes vocally - gay person in a conservative, often hostile community. I've gone on several solo trips overseas, visiting countries where I don't speak the language, arriving in unfamiliar cities without so much as a hotel reservation.

But I'm not fearless. I just don't let my fear stop me. Make no mistake: it tries to. I've been lost and alone. I've been robbed. I've been threatened. I've been a victim of discrimination. These things have often scared me. But I remember that far more often than these things have happened, I've remained safe, sound, and secure.

And more importantly, I remind myself that giving in to fear means giving up my freedom. It means I'm letting the people who might harm me win without a fight. The would-be thieves and assailants and bigots and terrorists would keep their freedom, and I'd lose mine.

Different people will find the strength to overcome their fear from different places. Some of us get it from our faith in a higher power. Others of us find it through meditation. Some of us achieve it through training, both psychological and physical. Others draw upon friends and family and their communities. And some of us get it from within ourselves. Where we get our courage doesn't matter so much as that we use it to continue living our lives.

Of course this doesn't mean we should act without regard for our safety. I pay attention to my surroundings. I've thought about how to defend myself in various kinds of situations (most of which involves handing over whatever they want and/or getting myself out of there). But having done that, I get on with my life.

This is what we need to do in response to these terrorist attacks. We need to figure out how to make ourselves reasonably safe. For example, we need to start taking airline security seriously for a change, to make it harder for someone to take over a plane. We need to build the diplomatic and intelligence skills to reduce the chances of someone getting to the airport (or train station or bridge or amusement park or whatever) in the first place.

Notice that I didn't say "make it impossible". We can't ever be 100% safe. We never could. The world has always been a dangerous place. So all we can do - all we've ever done - is to take reasonable precautions... then proceed to make whatever good we can with our lives. As individuals and as a society.

The other reaction we need to work through and overcome is our anger.

Our anger is what makes us hate the perpetrators of these horrible acts. It's an understandable reaction, and even a healthy one. But if we stop there and hold onto it, we're once again buying into the philosophy of those attacking our own.

As surely as Terrorism is about fear, its practitioners also promote hate. Whoever was behind these attacks clearly hates the people of the United States. If it was (as seems likely) Osama bin Laden, we know that he and his followers also hate the people of Israel, and the people of various other nations as well. They invite us to return their fanatical rage against us with an equal rage against them. We need to resist that.

I'm not suggesting forgiveness. These actions are unforgivable. They must be punished. But we also need to turn the other cheek. Not as a sign of weakness, or as an invitation to do it again. But as a sign of strength and defiance, as an indication that they'll gain nothing by trying to do it again. As a statement that we won't buy into that philosophy of nationalist hate.

We've been hearing a lot about "America", and how this disaster will draw us together and unite us. This is good, but again, we have to keep an eye on the whole picture. In the same way this attack affected more than just the dead and injured, more than just their families and friends, and more than just those in New York and D.C., it also affected more than just the United States.

I'm a participant in several discussion groups on the internet, which include people from numerous countries, and suddenly the usual topics have been brushed aside as people literally from around the world have spoken of how devastated they are by these attacks. The financial and military capitals of the United States may have been the physical targets, but the philosophical targets were global, and the whole world has been shaken by the impact.

So as we wave the Star and Stripes and sing "God Bless America" we need to remember to also include peace- and freedom-loving people from across our borders and overseas. Not just because we need their help to win a war, but because they're hurting too. We all need each other, and this is no time to draw lines between us.

Sadly, there are already rumbles of division, as a particular ethnicity (Arab) and a particular religion (Islam) are again singled out as "the enemy". I would hope it goes without saying that most Arabs (of whatever faith) and Muslims (of whatever ethnicity) living in America are as hurt as the rest of us. They don't deserve the apalling treatment we gave to Japanese members of our society 60 years ago, or even the coldness and suspicion that modern-day prejudice usually manifests as.

It also bears pointing out that the Palestinians and other Arabs celebrating in the streets overseas do not speak for all of their fellow nationals. Many of them mourn with the rest of us. There are even people in Afghanistan and other terrorist-supportive states who do not share their leaders' nationalist hatred.

The philosophy of Terrorism describes the world in terms of "us" and "them". Lines are drawn between groups, and no distinctions within them are recognized. Adherents of this belief regard us all - airline passengers, office workers, military leaders, and passers-by - as if each of us were their mortal enemy. They might have some legitimate grievances for which they could have received sympathy from people in this country... but Terrorism rejects that for stark dichotomies. If we accept that view by making - or even tolerating - blanket condemnations - or even automatic suspicion - of "Muslims" or "Arabs" or "Afghanistan", we're buying into that nationalistic philosophy. We're accepting that belief.

In today's world, wars are not about territory, but about philosophy. They're won by getting others to give up their own values for another's. I don't know how to defeat Terrorism at its roots. But it seems the first step is not to let it win by default. That means we need to reject the defeated paralysis of fear and the divisive nationalism of anger.

In other words: live freely and love fully.