Ten years isn’t long enough

There is a theme common to many of the 10th anniversary stories about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: In the minutes, hours and days immediately after the fall of the World Trade Center towers, we knew exactly were we stood. We had been attacked by a ruthless enemy and we had been dragged into a war against terrorism.

It was a sentiment described in this spot in an editorial published within a matter of hours after the second plane struck in New York, the third plane hit the Pentagon and United Flight 93 crashed nose-first into a field near Shanksville, Pa.

It should be noted that The Vindicator was still an afternoon paper then, when most newspapers were morning publications. Rebuilding news pages and putting together a timely editorial by noon or so was not the challenge faced by morning papers that either had to put out an “Extra” edition or work toward their next day’s publication schedules.

The editorial called for the United States to identify the organization responsible and respond with all its military might against “those who have declared war on the United States and the American people.”

Common responses

Readers responded likewise. Over the next week, this page ran dozens of letters from people who made the inevitable comparisons to the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and called for swift retribution. There were also letters criticizing gasoline stations that raised their prices as profiteers, tributes to first responders, a call for the return of prayer to schools and a defense of U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., who was under fire for a House speech in which he suggested one-sided U.S. policy in the Middle East inspired the attack. One letter from a YSU student said it was good that there was a Republican in the White House because “this heinous act ... deserves nothing but an all-out war.” History, of course, shows that the mastermind of 9/11 wasn’t brought to justice for more than nine years, and then by a Democratic president.

History also shows that most of us were naive — or perhaps blinded by our rage — in thinking there was something that could be done quickly that would comport with our demand for justice.

We have changed in the 10 years since — changed in ways that we don’t yet recognize. Perhaps at the 25-year mark, we will have a better view of where Sept. 11, 2001, has taken us. We can only hope it is to a better place.