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January
1, 2002
2001 was not the year we expected it to be.
Remember, back in 1999, the debate over when the new millennium would
actually begin? On Jan. 1, 2000, when the world didnıt end and the
electricity didnıt flicker, people chuckled that the disaster for which
we
prepare is never the disaster we get. When New Yearıs Eve 2000 rolled
around, no one expected anything very interesting to go wrong, because
after
all, the computer curse had been lifted, even though the rather
arbitrarily
scheduled Third Millennium was finally arriving.
But arrive it did, on Sept. 11, and America was changed forever.
"Democracies don't prepare well for things that have never happened
before,"
Richard A. Clarke told the New York Times last week. Clarke was White
House
counterterrorism chief at the time of the attacks. Heıs right;
democracies
donıt prepare well for the unexpected because consensus among individuals
is
difficult to achieve without conclusive evidence. We have enough
difficulty
agreeing on what to do about whatıs already happened, without speculating
on
the probability of what might, especially when the possible options are
practically endless.
So here we are in our brave new world. Weıve apparently wrestled our
computers into submission and weıre now fighting a war against a man who
lives in a cafe and whose arsenal may range from box-cutters to biological
weapons. Who would have imagined that on Jan. 1, 2002, the Russians would
be
staunch allies, a president who won by the thinnest of margins would be
enjoying high approval ratings, the New York skyline would be irrevocably
altered, and just a few short months after an attack on our mainland, our
concern over the recession would be tempered by our gratitude to be alive
and still protected by a functioning government?
Now itıs time to move forward into a new year, knowing now what we
didnıt
know at the official beginning of the millennium. Weıve been reminded
that
we donıt live in a vacuum, and our international supremacy doesnıt make
us
indestructible. The only way we have to prepare for what we canıt predict
is
to make certain weıve got the basics covered: education, health care,
transportation, defense, immigration, and foreign policy. Locally, we need
to take care of business as well. Now that weıve learned terror can
arrive
through the mail and on commercial flights, we know we canıt depend on it
happening in far-off places like New York, Washington and Pearl Harbor.
The presidentıs request that we fight terrorism by moving on with our
lives
is indeed a cliche if we interpret it to mean that we should rent more
movies and drink more wine. Moving forward with planning and policies, in
light of whatıs happened over the past year, is something different.
Itıs
sensible and forward thinking to keep putting one foot and front of the
other so that we have basic systems that function no matter what happens.
Americans rose admirably to the challenges of late 2001. Reactive though
it
was, thatıs progress. Now, in 2002 and beyond, we need to maintain that
resolve in the face of things that have never happened before. |
