If I Could Turn Back Time

It would be difficult at best, not to mention inappropriate, to attempt any measure of humor at a time like this. To be honest, I wasn’t going to send out an editorial this week, as my normal style would not be en vogue. But, as a dear friend told me, “That’s what they’re trying to do. And we can’t let them win.” And so, I write these words to you, my small but loyal readers, in defiance.

Shocked. Horrified. Bewildered. Confused. Angry. Vengeful. Helpless.

Afraid.

These aren’t the normal emotions that American’s feel, but they are being felt en masse across the country.

In college I read a story about a man who woke up one day to find a gigantic spider sitting in the middle of his living room. It was so massive that i dominated the room, and in a fearful sweat, he skirted around the spider to escape it, ever watchful of its millions of eyes, and hopeful that it would simply leave as it had come. But the spider did nothing. Just sat in the man’s house. day after day, and with a lessening of his initial fear, the man performed the same dance around the spider. He grew less and less afraid of the spider, and more and more comfortable. He began to live his life around the spider, even taking to ordinary tasks in his living room, like eating and watching television. One day, he forgot about the spider completely. It had become such a fixture in his life that he viewed it as normal, and it no longer posed any kind of threat in his mind.

The next day the spider ate him.

I had never really understood the point of that story until yesterday. I spoke to many people on the phone, sharing the emotions of the day; taking and giving comfort. One friend told me to think about the people in the Middle East who live in a world where each day, such actions are commonplace.

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t conceive of such a world where the spider of fear becomes normal to me. That’s not to say that it couldn’t occur, but trying to conceive of a nation where fear, dust and sulfur saturate the air is simply inconceivable.

And such conceptions, I believe, won’t become a reality.

Although, I now have another date to remember, another place I was when history occurred. All Americans now have such a memory.

The first time such an event lodged itself, I was in the sixth grade, and the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. The second time, I was in college, and the Oklahoma City bombing occurred.

Yesterday, I was en route to work.

There are words to describe the emotions that I share with millions of Americans, perhaps even millions of people around the world this morning. But they are hard to articulate. Not because the emotions aren’t real, but rather because they are so real, so rare, so raw.

Nothing seems to satisfy.

Nothing seems to comfort.

But one thing is certain. If the perpetrators of these heinous actions, and those who aided and harbored them, have any emotion other then fear; fear of capture, fear of reprisal, fear of justice, then they had best look to the history of the sleeping giant which they have awakened.

They will find little comfort.

Our history is filled with examples of just reprisals in such circumstances. Given days, weeks and months, those who are guilty will be brought forth. In that certainty the world can be assured.

Our nation will go on, and it will return to a state where we do not fear the spider. Not because we will have become used to its presence in our lives, but because we have defeated it.

We have driven it out.

We have stood together and said that we will not go quietly into the night.

But this isn’t a call to arms, and should not be taken as such. This is a plea. A please to get on with our lives. A plea to help others get on with theirs. A plea to not live in fear, but to live wisely.

Yesterday, I felt as helpless as everyone else. It was helpless to stop what was occurring, helpless to turn back the clock.

Helpless to help.

Today, in a small way, I, and you, can help.

A call has gone out from the American Red Cross and similar agencies for donations of blood. This isn’t just a single act of giving, but a call to solidarity in a nation that is often divided. To overcome the spider, to drive it out, we will have to stand together. Contact your local American Red Cross for donation information, or, if you can’t find the number call the national hotline at: 1 (800) 448-5433. The words those numbers spell say it all. 1 (800) GIVE LIFE.