Remember this day, for on this day life in America changed forever, and not for better. We are at war, and the war may never end. The death toll is unimaginable, the worst (and almost the only) domestic war casualties in our history. But we’ve lost more than lives. We’ve lost what’s left of our innocence. Remember what life was like before today: freedom to travel, the right to privacy, a sense of ease and security in our homes and in our cities and towns.
All these freedoms are diminished now. We can and will get them back. We will win this war as we have won the others, including World War II. But victory will not be easy, and we may have to give up some measure of freedom to preserve what’s best of the rest.
We are lucky beyond imagining in America. In most of the rest of the world, you ignore politics at your peril, often literally at the risk of your life. But here, for most of our history, our citizens have had the luxury as citizens to ignore politics. No one can ignore it anymore.
We are lucky to have democratically elected leaders and institutions that are trusted by the people. Now they will be tested as they have not been since the early days of the last world war.
There are justifiably angry questions about the quality of counterintelligence, the skill of our diplomacy, the weaknesses of what was supposed to be a hijackproof air-transport system. As was the case 60 years ago, the question is: How could we have been so catastrophically unprepared?
The nonfiction best-seller lists have been heavy with books about great leaders and great days: the Founding Fathers, the Greatest Generation, the world-beating CEOs of business.
It’s almost as if we were unconsciously aware of the fact that we would need real leadership again.
And now we do. President George Walker Bush won a disputed election by the narrowest of constitutional margins. He got fewer popular votes than his foe. I know the man. He has more skill and savvy than most observers give him credit for. What we don’t know is whether he has the guts and determination-and the vision-to lead us in this war.
Now we will find out.
