Perhaps They "Won" After All

I was in Manhattan on 9/11, in my 3rd year as head of the Calhoun School. It was an awful, frightening, surreal day - the first day of school under a deep blue late summer sky. 

I’ve previously related my personal experiences on 9/11 and I don’t write to do so again. 

Rather, I write to suggest that 9/11 was a turning point in our history, arguably leading to the divisive, racist, anti-immigrant state in which we find ourselves in 2024.

Grief and admiration were inevitable in the wake of the attacks. The horror of the collapses and the selfless heroism of responders are - and should be - indelible memories. My own first responder “hero,” Kolby Hogan, traces his life choice to watching, awestruck, the bravery of those who ran toward probable death to save strangers. My wife was among a group of therapists called to tend to the deep trauma experienced by children and families.

Unthinkable tragedy can draw the best from humankind. Many New Yorkers and others throughout the nation recall a powerful sense of unity arising from the dust. In Manhattan that was true - fleetingly. But in the weeks, months and years that followed, 9/11 became jingoistic shorthand, justifying a narrow and angry form of patriotism. Sikh cab drivers displayed American flags, hoping, often without success, to avoid verbal or physical abuse. The unity of grief and compassion gradually became discolored and disfigured, turning into a unity of suspicion and anger. Flying a flag became a mandate, not an option, and “Proud to be an American” became our de facto national anthem. 

It didn’t take historical reflection to know that our invasion of Iraq was justified by lies and led to the slaughter of an estimated 400,000-600,00 innocent Iraqis. Many of us knew it was fraudulent at the time, but America’s arrogant pride was bloodthirsty. (Afghanistan was a longer debacle, perhaps a mission with some slight justification, but a dark stain nonetheless.)

There is a line from 2001 to the present, connecting the specificity of “othering” Islamic terrorists to a broad “othering” of all Arabs and Arab-Americans. The through-line dimmed with the election of Barack Obama, but that brief interlude reanimated the virulent domestic racism that had partially receded, but never really diminished. 

Now, in the Trump-MAGA era, the threads of Islamophobia, historic, relentless racism, antisemitism and AAPI hate have been joined by vicious anti-immigrant sentiments, recently exemplified by the cruel and dishonest characterization of Haitians in Springfield and a growing list of other communities. 

It does not take forensic skill to note that most of these “others” are not white and most are not Christian either. Throw in a dollop - or bucketful - of homophobia, and you have the logical consequences you see today. (I would be remiss if not adding women to the list, although unlike the other ”others,” women are still welcome in MAGA bedrooms and kitchens.)

Perhaps you are not persuaded by this analysis, believing (properly) that bigotry and hate are not a 21st century phenomenon. 

But something happened on that dreadful September morning that shifted, perhaps inalterably, our sense of ourselves and our place in the world. Despite our history of inflicting unimaginable pain on others - Vietnam anyone? - our nose was bloodied for the first time on our own continent. Neither I nor any decent person would suggest that we “deserved it,” but neither before 9/11 nor since have we shown any notable capacity for recognizing that our economic, military and cultural imperialism just might piss people off.

My reading in the New York Times this morning included reader comments on a Charles Blow column about Springfield, Haitians, and the broader implications. My heart sank at the many statements of utter resignation by immigrants and others of color, concluding that the United States is simply not a safe place to live or, particularly, to raise non-white children. 

I remain provisionally hopeful of a Harris/Walz victory. But the fact will remain that 40-50 million Americans are just fine with leadership that encourages violence and stokes deep fear and resentment of “the other.” 

Shortly after 9/11, George W. Bush and many others aggressively asserted that the terrorists weren’t going to “win” by changing our way of life. He exhorted everyone to shop, to prove we were still Americans.

That we did. But it seems, after all these years, that perhaps the terrorists “won” after all.