That public speakers in America will reference terrorism at every opportunity is now a given. It is a reflex reaction -- put any group of luminaries behind a podium, squeeze them and the words "September 11" will pop out.
At the first meeting of the Class of 2006 and again at the Convocation ceremonies before Fall term, all the major speakers -- President James Wright, Dean of First Year Students Gail Zimmerman and Student Body President Janos Marton '04, to mention a few -- alluded to Sept. 11 in their addresses.
This pattern isn't limited to Dartmouth, nor is it an academic phenomenon. Actors clutching Emmys feel obliged to dedicate their statuettes to the victims of that fateful day. Sports stars, after catching a touchdown pass or crushing a home run, are prone to trumpeting their athletic acts as a validation of America's resolve. And it is unthinkable that any politician would give a stump speech without including a weepy-eyed moment of reflection on Sept. 11, followed shortly by the gaze of steely resolve.
The clich, after all, is that Sept. 11 changed everything -- that, in the light of those terrorist attacks, nothing we do will ever be the same. This is meant to justify attempts to tie in the tragedy with every major public event.
In a major way the clich is true. It's true that 2,843 innocents were murdered on that fateful September morning, and because of those deaths America can become a different nation. Hopefully a better nation.
But one thing hasn't changed: our national squeamishness about confronting hard truths. And that is a tragedy.
Just listen to the way our speakers make their obligatory references. They say: "in light of recent world events," "after the tragic events of last year" and "looking back on that terrible tragedy last September."
Those orators who feel extremely bold might venture: "the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11," or maybe even "the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."
But you will never hear the whole, unabashed truth. You will never hear anyone say: "America is different because last year, on the morning of Sept. 11, a group of Osama bin Laden's terrorists hijacked four planes. They did not want to make a statement, they did not want to issue demands -- they wanted to kill as many Americans as they could. They crashed those planes into the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon, into a Pennsylvania field. And they murdered 2,843 civilians. They murdered men, women and children of all nations and religions. That is why America is different, why the world is different." Instead, we get: "Sept. 11 changed everything." That, I believe, is an intellectual end-run.
Sept. 11 didn't change anything. The twin towers didn't change anything. It was 2,843 murders which "changed everything." But we don't like to talk about murder -- that might be divisive or controversial. So we moderate our language, dressing up and drowning out a harsh truth.
Those who tiptoe around the bothersome detail of 2,843 murders claim many reasons for doing so, and I do not doubt they are well meaning in this self-censorship. They worry that such graphic truth might offend sensitive groups and might cause pain to those who lost loved ones.
The truth is not offensive; it is terrorism that is offensive to humanity. The truth does not cause pain; it is terrorism that brought this pain to the world. We ought not shield the true culprit from public scrutiny; we ought to cast it into the spotlight and expose it for the menace it is.
And the truth of what happened just might anger and inflame Americans, just might rile up the life-loving world. Not against Arabs or Muslims, as the worriers fret. Against terrorists. Then and only then might we actually do something to stop those terrorists.
Our hand-ringing, poll-reading public figures preach that if we don't look beyond Sept. 11, if we don't move on, then somehow the terrorists will have won. Nothing could be further from the truth. If we sweep unpleasant details like all those murders under the rug, if we let the attacks become a distant, vague and ultimately meaningless catchphrase, only then are we trapped. Because then nothing will have changed. We will return, blissfully ignorant, to life as it used to be, and the terrorists will return to us.
The truth about terrorism isn't a liability -- it is our one great weapon. We ought to speak about it more often.
