I recently returned from a trip that included a day in London, a week with my family in Spain, and lastly a few days to Maryland where I met up with Donna for her cousin's wedding.
It was all very nice and wonderful (if you click on the highlighted text above you'll see photos from the different travels), but I'll let them speak for themselves. What I wanted to write about was terrorism.
I flew United from London to DC two days before the most recent 'problems'. I was happy to have missed the travel chaos that it caused, and even happier that the plot (assuming the British police have done their homework this time) was discovered and prevented. The ensuing rash of press conferences and Government officials reminding us that 'we are at war, etc' recalled one of my favourite Onion articles from 2003 "Orange Alert Sirens To Blow 24 Hours A Day In Major Cities" (that was over three years ago, note!), which stated
"These 130-decibel sirens, which, beginning Friday, will scream all day and night in the nation's 50 largest metro areas, will serve as a helpful reminder to citizens to stay on the lookout for suspicious activity and be ready for emergency action," Ridge said. "Please note, though, that this is merely a precautionary measure, so go about your lives as normal."
and
"The sirens are really loud," said San Francisco resident Linda Pearcy, shouting over a horn posted in her backyard. "My dog won't stop barking, and the windows rattle all day long. And I didn't know about the helicopters dropping all the orange slips of paper. I guess I can't complain, though. These are scary times, and the government is doing what it can to make us feel more secure."
Growing up near London in the 80s and travelling frequently to Spain, as a child the fear of terrorism (the IRA in England, ETA in Spain) was always pushing its way in to my mind. After a particularly brutal campaign of IRA bombs in Central London (including
the Harrod's bombing in 1983), I was constantly afraid of my father going to his work in nearby Cavendish Square. When we would drive through central Madrid and out to the countryside, I would sit nervously, asking myself if today was the day that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time when ETA decided to hit some senior Guardia Civil or politician. I kept these fears to myself, knowing I was probably fretting over nothing but unable to put them into perspective.
In 1986 I was due to fly British Airways with my mother from Chicago to Heathrow. This was the day after the US bombed Libya using Britain as a jumping off point for its fighters. The Libyans issued many threats about attacking british flights from the USA, obviously credible ones as we were taken off the place after two people failed to board. A couple of people spread rumours around, passing their nerves along to the rest of us. After a long delay we were taken back to the plane which was sequestered in a part of the air field far away from everything, surrounded by bright lights and many police cars. At least that's how my child's mind remembered it. I was asleep before we left the tarmac.
A few years later in the early 90s the IRA ran another bombing campaign, when I was travelling to and from London frequently by train, the focus of their attentions this time. If visitors to London ever wonder why there are no trash cans in any London train or underground stations, the bomb placed in a Victoria Station rubbish bin in 1991 that killed one person is why. I remember being on a crowded rush hour train, delayed. A voice came over the PA system asking us to look under our seats for 'suspicious packages'. After a few moments, another announcement telling us to leave the train. Everyone shuffled off, orderly and calm, reacting as if it were all par for the course, an everyday occurrence. And, fact is, it was. Depending on your perspective, you could see such nonchalant behaviour as either the ideal response (people not changing their behaviour or routine in the face of an unspecified, amorphous threat) or the worst (utter complacency in the face of a real threat).
I don't mean to sound complacent about terrorism, because it's an awful thing to ever experience. At least, I think it would be. All I've experienced, like most people, is the fear of terrorism, not terrorism itself. And what could I ever do to avoid it? Essentially nothing. Beyond a general awareness of ones surroundings, there is little anyone could do. What I did live through was occasionally frightening and frustrating, but you learned to live with it. In the same way as one rationalises the risks of many everyday activities (cooking in the kitchen? You might slice of a thumb! Going for a walk? You may get hit by a car! Swimming in the ocean? Watch out for sharks!), the (statistically) extremely small threat of a terrorist attack while using mass transit in an urban center was simply something that I would cross my fingers on and hope wouldn't happen that day. Clearly most people around me did the same.
I remember a popular saying going around in school.
Be alert - your country needs lerts!, A quick google search reveals this was a Spike Milligan quote. I never knew that.
My point is - you get used to it. I'm sure those people affected by anything as awful and random as a terrorist attack would grate as my use of those words, how can you 'get used to it', after all? But I'm not talking about them, who deserve as much support and sympathy as we can give them. I'm talking about the rest of us, the vast majority who will likely live our lives without ever being direct witnesses to an attack. As large in scope and impact as 9/11 was, as upsetting as it was to live through, and for weeks afterwards when there was a not unsurprising amount of nervousness for things like driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, I did think to myself,
you'll get used to it.
What I didn't expect to have to get used to was the subsequent actions of the US administration using 9/11 as their 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card for all kinds of frightening and indefensible decisions, but I'm not going to dwell on that here. I wonder if my many google searches I've made while writing this, including the words "bomb", "ira", "london", "terrorism", are going to land me my own file at the NSA - the ultimate conspiracy theorists dream! Now yours at no cost except a few freedoms you weren't using anyway.
Anyway, back to my recent trip. On the flight to DC, there was a group of thirty or so Indonesian children on board. They had large backpacks and name badges. I think they were Muslim.
An hour or so before we were due to land, when the map said we were flying over Boston, a voice came over the PA. I strained to listen to the announcement, thinking I must not be hearing it properly, but it was soon clear that it was not English. The voice spoke calmly for a few minutes, I guessed it was for the Indonesian group. When it was done, one of the cabin crew's voices came over the PA announcing just that. An American woman sitting behind me, flustered and unsettled, piped up to a nearby crew member, "I didn't know what they were saying. I'm happy you announced it, I just didn't know
what was being said. And over Boston too. We were over Boston. We were
over Boston", she repeated. What did she think, that an announcement in calm non-English was a call to
jihad? That we were being hijacked? Or that we were about to be plunged into Fenway Park at 500 mph by a bunch of 14-year old Indonesian kids? "
AAUUGGH! We're going DOWN!", I imagined her screaming over the backdrop of an announcement that "your luggage will be due for collection at claim number 2, and please meet at the meeting point in the arrivals hall". I pictured her dealing with an announcement asking everyone to evacuate a train. All elbows and screams, no doubt. She was a lert, for sure, doing her part for her country.
Travel |
9-11 |
Terrorism |
September 11th |
Hijacking |
Indonesia
