Up Front

Land of the We

I had originally intended to compose an editorial that would fill this page with something wry, yet insightful; humorous and thought-provoking. Throw one or two of the metaphors I’m fond of at you, toss in a glib closer at the end, and shimmy into the wings while the band plays my exit cue. Such is the nature of writing this page—an endowment of stating one’s mind, ideally apropos to the reading audience, but with the freedom of sculpting it in one’s own form.

Then came—what’s that over-used management term? —our paradigm shift.

It is my fervent hope that in the time from my setting these words to paper, to the time you read this page, that the perpetrators of the crimes of 11 September, 2001—and hopefully no further terrorist acts follow the penning of these words—have been rooted out of their places of hiding and exposed to the wrath of the American nation. The face of this criminal was revealed by Charles Dickens’s Ghost-of-Christmas-Present, beneath whose robes huddled Ignorance and Want. Over time, those cowering wraiths have bred Fanaticism and Zealotry, and those are the ones who hurl weapons against all whom they believe to represent a threat. But we are not Scrooge, not after decades of extending assistance to other nations in times of war or disaster.

I am writing, at this moment, in the shelter of my own home on 13 September. Let me repeat three words from that last sentence. My own home. In the driveway is my car. Upstairs my four-year-old son settles down to sleep, my wife in the kitchen shaping loaves of bread destined for a gathering of friends. The washing machine purrs in the basement, while the TV hops between news updates and the sci-fi channel. A memorial candle burns on the buffet in our dining room. To who, to what do we owe this deluxe liberty?

Men and women are standing in front of the cameras, now, holding up pictures of beloved friends and family, describing their appearance, where they worked. The missing. The names and faces speak of many cultures: Haitian and Italian; Irish, East European and Asian. A full palette of colors, with all the harmonic religions. Understand this: the attack was not against your ideology, but against our ideologies. It is our diversity, and the richness of our unified cultural experiences, that have made this nation great, strong and civilized. In other words, it is the variety, the broad range of components that has made our system the best of its kind. There’s my metaphor; now to business at hand.

rmandel@nelsonpub.com