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It was five o'clock in the afternoon as I dodged the tide of
people leaving their workplace for the subway station next door. Men
and women in various types of uniforms smiled and nodded
"hello" to me-a pony-tailed, backpack-toting
stranger-as they headed home for the weekend. They
seemed very friendly, relaxed, chatty, and happy-much like any
employees would be at quitting time on a Friday. It
was hard to believe that these people work in a building that,
only months ago, was attacked by Islamic extremists in the most
destructive series of terrorist acts ever to take place on
American soil.
The building was the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and these
smiley-faced, friendly people were members of the CIA and
various other military units. Some of them were
inside that building on the morning of September 11th, when
Osama bin Laden's terrorists flew American Airlines flight 77
out of Washington, DC, straight into it. Many of
their colleagues were killed when the jet exploded on impact. Yet
here they were, seemingly a world away from any such trauma.
This Pentagon community is the ultimate microcosm of the
post-9/11 western world. Reminders of what was-and of
what could be once again-are ever-present, but they haven't
stopped people from going about their business and living their
lives as normally as possible.
I walked through the parking lot along one side of the building,
watching military guards wheel around in armored trucks. I
followed the perimeter of the building until the towering yellow
crane that hovered over the disaster site was directly in front
of me. A tall, white billboard that read, "Let's
Roll!" (the famous rallying cry of Todd Beamer, whose
hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11), marked the
point of impact of the jumbo jet on that fateful morning last
September. The damage has now been almost completely
repaired. A couple of weeks ago, a time capsule
containing a photo of President George W. Bush and other items
related to the attack were sealed into the newly-repaired wall.
But no amount of reparation could ever make us forget. I
imagined the trajectory the plane would have taken, coming in
low over the highway, right above the heads of horrified
commuters. I thought about how the massive explosion
that occurred at the exact spot in front of me had claimed the
precious lives of so many people-both in the doomed jetliner and
on the ground inside the Pentagon. I thought of all
the bright lights that had been snuffed out right where I
stood-including that of my fellow political commentator and
career role model, Barbara Olson.
I doubt that any of the Pentagon employees could ever walk by
that side of the building without thinking about the horrible
disaster of just over nine months ago that affected us all and
claimed the lives of some of their friends and colleagues. Yet,
here they were-smiling, talking, discussing weekend plans. It
was a scene that surely would have sent Osama bin Laden and his
buddies into orbit.
As former US President, Bill Clinton, said during an appearance
in Vancouver, BC, last November, the main goal of terrorists is
to terrorize-to huff and puff and threaten to blow our buildings
down. They want us to be afraid, and to have us stop
living our lives in accordance with the western values of
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that we
hold so dear. They want us to live in constant fear
of their next move. And as soon as we give in to that
fear and allow it to start controlling us and to slowly paralyze
us, then we hand these terrorists a victory.
It would be foolish of us not to take security precautions, as
vigilance is the key to safety and security in this new,
post-9/11 world; however, we also cannot allow fear to dictate
the way in which we live our lives.
There is a palpable anxiety here in Washington, DC, surrounding
the upcoming Independence Day celebrations. Authorities
are planning to enclose the Mall and the Capitol with a double
fence that has only four entrances. Before any of the
estimated 200,000 to 300,000 partiers enter the area, they will
have to pass through a metal detector and submit to a thorough
search of any bags they may be carrying.
In light of rumored al-Qaeda plans to release nerve gas into the
DC subway system on or about July 4th, the Smithsonian subway
station will be shut down for the day.
The post-9/11 focus on homeland security has also given rise to
some unusual pairings. Given an FBI warning that
terrorists may target fuel tanker trucks, President Bush is even
getting James Hoffa and the 500,000 truck operators covered by
his Teamsters' union involved in the grass-roots homeland
security effort. According to chief political
correspondent for the Washington Times, Don Lambro, President
Bush has invited all of the Teamsters' state legislative and
political coordinators (150 in total) to the White House on June
24th. Hoffa says that the truckers "can be the
eyes and ears of the homeland security office."
All of these precautions are reassuring. And because
of these measures, Americans and other westerners can feel
secure in celebrating life and liberty on Independence Day. Sure,
we're vigilant, but we're also out there living our lives to the
fullest, and-like the employees at the Pentagon who were at the
front line of the 9/11 attacks-we're not allowing fear to stop
us from doing so.
I, for one, will be draped in my Canadian flag with my long hair
tied up in a star-spangled bandana while I celebrate at the base
of the Washington Monument on the 4th of July. I'll
be standing under the fireworks, shoulder to shoulder with my
American brothers and sisters. And while bin Laden
and his band of angry men are huddled together in some dark
cave, planning and scripting their next videotaped message of
terror and fear, they will see that such things do not reign
here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. They
will realize that they have once again suffered a defeat at the
hands of the people and principles of the free world.
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