Allow me to "Rachel Maddow" this forthcoming editorial.
32 years ago, on February 26, 1992, Ramzi Yousef detonated a bomb in the parking garage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, intending to fell the building and consequentially knock down the adjacent South Tower. Despite the bomb's successful detonation, the buildings remained intact.
The shock of the blast was a shock to New Yorkers, and Americans in general, and after a good amount of time, the general thought was that despite the damage, the endeavor was foolhardy, was rather dismissed as such by the general public, then subsequently disregarded and mostly forgotten.
Ramzi Yousef was abetted in this terrorist attack plot by a man named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a man who not only evaded capture while the FBI would, over the next couple of years, gather intel that would discover other bombing plots against NYC landmark buildings and airline flights.
The FBI had already had suspicions of potential terrorist attacks, unfortunately based most on theory and not evidence. As much of a surprise at this first attempt at bombing the WTC, it was much less so for security intelligence, though legally cold not pursue action on this intel legally.
At large for years, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would go on to become one of the "chief architects" of the 9/11 attacks. Islamic extremists defended their attacks as retaliation for the (perceived?) hostile policies of the U.S. against them. Feeling that their reasons were “justified,” they did not just “give up” after their first attempt, they quietly went back to their “drawing boards” to re-strategize an new plan, with the hopes of greater success. *
All the while, New York and the states and the rest of the western world went about their business, naively thinking that that these extremists, after years of planning, would just stop their efforts and leave the unsuccessful efforts at that.
Then, of course, 9/11 *did* happen, and understandably, we were all trauma shocked that people would commit this level of attack on us. The “unfathomable” was visited upon us, though, removed from comfort and emotion, the attack was not “unfathomable “ at all. We should not have been surprised at a second attempt—surely national intelligence expected it—but we had convinced ourselves that the threat, the danger, was over and past us.
Now, allow me to stress that, for the sake of this editorial, I am making *no* comparison between the ideologies of the people who perpetrated the events of 2/26/92 and those who committed the acts at the Capitol on 1/6/21; the link I am making is to the possibly apparent similarities in our *reactions* and “responses” to each of those events.
We reacted with proper shock and alarm to those events, but once those events failed to see the intended outcomes of those events, we mostly reacted as if the fiery plots behind those actions were simply extinguished.
That rationale, as we now know, was proven wrong, the earlier event followed up with a “successful” bringing down of the towers and airplane bombings of government buildings (where the previous attempt failed), the more recent event followed up by a “successful” installation of a new /different government *architect* and possibly new *architecture* (where the previous attempt to, by might, “take over” the government to install a new one).
And as uncomfortable as this quote might validate the actions of an ideology I don’t agree with, it allows me to acknowledge its support and influence without me, and at least understand—and often predict—the actions of its agenda, even while being, in many regards, vehemently against it.
We are starkly divided on what the “standard” of American “culture” should be. Is it, let’s say for sake of argument, that of a Christian country or that of a melting pot of ideologies? Do you believe that one impedes so much on the other so much that you’d be willing to “fight” to preserve it? Would you let “the rules” keep you from implementing (what you believe to be necessary) new rules?
Are you still in shock, still asking yourself, “How did we get here?” Are you instead now asking yourself, “Why don’t I know how we got here?” Are you still clinging to the comfortable cloak of “It’s not / It can’t be that bad.” Or, worse, “It can’t get worse, right?”
(Remember Covid, evidentiary in December 2019, but as we progressed through the first months of 2020: “That can’t happen here.” “It can’t be that bad.” “It can’t get worse.” This denial applies not just to the viability of the virus, but our collective, national contentions over the validity of it.)
Are you still continuing to look away, to stay in your “bubble” and echo chamber, to keep your politically aligning news station on in the background all day, screaming your viewpoints to drown out differing ones, sticking your fingers in your ears to silence them flat out?
I’ve had even fewer social conversations than I usually do. (There seemed to be a 2-week period there where everyone was reaching out to me with a variety of life struggles and I eventually ran out of bandwidth for it, saving my own peace and serenity.)
But the ones I have had (like the one I just had this morning) are with people who seemed to be actively “in acceptance” and consequentially considering making possibly life-changing decisions for the near and far future. Two seemingly antipolar American “cultures” can no longer co-exist. Some are planning alternatives, some are still, admirably, hopeful and “waiting it out.” Some feel it’s “not that bad” or “can’t get worse.” And some—actually, many—are optimistic for a sharp, new direction ahead.
The real possibility that the benefits essentially forcing me to go back to the states might not even exist anymore. I really have to check in with a variety of news sources throughout the day to re-assess my short- and long-term options. This new national agenda, voted in *confidently* (and to them, patriotically) by fervent and loyal supports and advocates for it, puts many point of my life in peril—some physically.
But I was not un-prepared, so I haven’t suffered a stultifying “shock” that would otherwise keep me from making well thought-out adjustments going forward (and understanding that I may often have to make those adjustments “on the fly”).
I, yet again, still urgently recommend that people watch the Netflix doc-series The Family and the documentary film Bad Faith which were the recent great help in showing me “Who are the people voting for this?” And at least understand their thinking without at all have to agree with it. Understanding where they are coming from ideologically has only helped me better be prepared for any number of relevant socio-political possibilities going forward, and better plan ahead according to that understanding, and not just on blind emotion (which prepares me for nothing).
Grace to you who read this in its entirety.
[*Source: https://www.fbi.gov/.../world-trade-center-bombing-1993]
