A nation attacked.
A nation at war.
Up until last Tuesday, those were just words to most anyone under 65 anyone who wasn’t around during Pearl Harbor and its aftermath. Books and movies helped put some context on those terrible days, and we nodded sympathetically when our parents and grandparents recalled how scared they were and how determined they became.
But they were just words and images hard to comprehend in an age dominated by self-image and self-importance. Besides, who has time to listen to old war stories when there are kids to shuttle to soccer practice, when you’ve just made an offer on a bigger house, and when your boss wants you in Dallas next week?
Perhaps now we will have some time.
After a point, of course, life will be back to normal. A week, a month several Israeli citizens interviewed last week said it would happen a lot sooner than we realize. They know better than most how grotesque terrorism can be and how important it is to keep living your life.
And yet there will be changes.
It’s been apparent for years that airport security must be dramatically improved by putting law enforcement in charge of the process, not the Federal Aviation Administration or the airlines themselves. Such recommendations that have been collecting dust in Washington and elsewhere will now be receiving the appropriate attention.
At first, there will be a predictable overreaction, which means you can forget about jumping on a plane at the last minute. Already, there’s grumbling about the decision to shut the primary parking lots at Los Angeles International Airport one of countless inconveniences that travelers are about to face.
Somehow, an intricate balance will have to be struck among law enforcement officials, airlines and the traveling public on how much security is appropriate and at what cost. As time passes and even this horrible memory starts to fade, it will become ever more difficult to maintain that balance. That’s the problem people tend to forget.
The other obvious change involves the economy. A growing number of economists now believe that the United States is in a recession. It will be months before any official designation is possible, and it’s still possible that we’ll see more of a “growth recession,” in which there is continued expansion, but too slow to be noticeable. Regardless of label, the effects will be difficult to ignore. Higher gasoline prices. Empty department stores. Bankrupt companies.
If all this sounds unrelentingly bleak, it needn’t be. There are lessons that could and should be learned, starting with the painful recognition that the United States is not immune from the same threats that are faced by the rest of the world. That message has been delivered in many ways in recent years in Oklahoma City and elsewhere but never before as severely and tragically.
Perhaps more important is the life lesson that last week’s disaster has brought. There really has been very little bad news during the last few years of economic prosperity. Even the Y2K scare turned out to be just that. Such complacency can be a dangerous thing not only when playing the markets but also in playing out our lives.
Our parents and grandparents understood as much more than half a century ago. Now it’s our turn.
