Six months is long enough to give some perspective to events of Sept. 11

In the six months since the World Trade Centers collapsed, most Americans have seen the images of those buildings fall dozens, if not hundreds, of times.
And yet, they still have the power to horrify. Today we know what we could only guess on the day the towers fell. Nearly 3,000 people were incinerated or crushed after two airliners crashed into the twin towers. One in 10 of those who died was a firefighter or police officer.
On this, the six-month anniversary of the attack on America, it is appropriate to spend a moment in silence for those who died. It is also appropriate to discuss and think about the legacy of September 11.
The toll: At this time six months ago, no one knew the scope of our national tragedy. In truth, no one knows the full scope even today, and it may fall to historians not yet born to put it fully in perspective.
On 9/11/01, the initial fear was that the death toll in New York City alone could reach into the tens of thousands. Within days, estimates were still in the 7,000 to 8,000 range.
The latest count shows that 2,830 people died in the World Trade Center buildings and the hijacked planes that struck them. At the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., 189 people died in the building and the airliner that hit it. The flight that crashed in Somerset, Pa., presumably when passengers became aware of what happened in New York and attempted to take back the plane, claimed 44 lives.
But while 3,063 people died that day, the nation lost even more from the chain of events the began when that first airliner struck at 8:46 a.m.
Dollar figures: A wire story in Sunday's Vindicator tried to calculate the loss in dollars. It estimated property damage at $10 billion to $13 billion. Perhaps $20 billion in actuarial losses represented by the deaths. Another $40 billion or $50 billion in lost productivity. Such numbers are necessary for economists to understand the scope of the damage and for government to use in determining what it has to do for its citizens.
But a story compiled by Vindicator staff writers working on a six-part series, "Reflections on 9/11," went beyond monetary losses and showed that most people's lives have been deeply affected -- but not always in ways that can be quantified and not always in negative ways.
The events of Sept. 11 brought a new element of fear into many people's lives. There was a loss of innocence for children, who now express fears that weren't a part of their lives Sept. 10. But there was also a new sense of patriotism, a new sense of togetherness and a new sense of determination not to allow terrorists to define American life.
Illusion of normality: Six months after the most deadly attack on America in 60 years, we're almost tempted to say that things are returning to normal. But they aren't, and to pretend that they are would be dangerous.
First, of course, there is the on-going war in Afghanistan, which has claimed more than 35 American lives. And there is the prospect of that war dragging on for some time.
Then, too, there is the broader war on terrorism, which has caused the United States to send its troops into more than half a dozen nations.
And there is the ever-present threat of another terrorist attack. Since Sept. 11, authorities in more than a dozen countries claim to have discovered terrorist cells plotting against the United States.
At home, our government is still holding hundreds of people who were rounded up in the days following Sept. 11, but only one has been charged specifically with plotting the attacks of Sept. 11.
Airline traffic remains 15 percent lower than a year ago, and airport security is at levels that most Americans could not have imagined or tolerated six months ago.
In the first six months after the attacks, it is natural enough that most Americans would rally around whatever it was that our government said was necessary to protect us from outside forces.
Questions: Now, it is natural enough for Americans to continue to support the war against terrorism, but to also begin asking questions about how much of America's commitment to freedom should be sacrificed in the name of security.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety," Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1759, before our nation was born. Little could Franklin have imagined how man's ability to wreak havoc would evolve.
Nonetheless, his counsel is sound. We should not trade centuries as a free nation for a temporary illusion of safety.
That the terrorists of Sept. 11 have changed our lives is well documented. But it is not yet written in stone that they have changed our national identity.
Our initial period of mourning what happened in New York, Washington and Somerset, Pa., is over. It is a proper time to begin looking to the future. As the pages of our calendar turn, the next natural opportunity to take another look back at Sept. 11 and ahead to the 21st century will come six months from today.