From 9/11 to the Coronavirus - How Societal Trauma can Lead us Astray

2001 - America "Under Attack"

On the morning of Sep. 11, 2001, I was headed to my second period class at Druid Hills High School. A friend approached me.

"A plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center's buildings!" He exclaimed.

Our reaction is one I remember vividly. We laughed out loud. 

"What an idiot!" I said. And we chuckled about an apparent gaffe from a terrible airline pilot. Of course, we were laughing about something very serious, as a couple of naive boys often do. 16-year old me just couldn't grasp the concept of America coming under attack. That was something we'd left behind us at Pearl Harbor - something for the history books. I walked to second period unperturbed.

And that's when things changed. 

Entering my classroom, the TV was on. Not one, but both of the World Trade Centers were now engulfed in flames. This was no accident. A somber mood, one I hadn't experienced before, engulfed the classroom. Soon after, the North Tower fell. I watched on in horror. At the time, I couldn't quite grasp the scope of what had just happened. I'd just watched thousands of Americans die in a matter of moments. I was legitimately confused and traumatized, and obviously, I was far from alone in feeling this way. 

The idea of America coming under attack by a foreign adversary was something I couldn't comprehend. You see, I had spent most of my life up to that point doing the stupid things that boys do. None of that included informing myself on the day-to-day of current events. I remember telling my Father that my view on politics was "as long as I could play soccer and watch football on the weekends, I don't care." We all know this sort of insular and selfish view is the case for most children. And then suddenly, we had this catastrophic event we couldn't understand thrust upon all of us. It was truly traumatic.

I still remember the shock and the sadness. But most of all, I remember the anger. I've never been so angry. For days, I watched CNN late into the night, feeling emotions I'd never felt, and struggling to come to terms with what had happened. I inundated myself with the the emotions of the moment - tearing up about dramatic stories of death and survival. But more so, I found myself clenching my fists in anger on discussions of Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Ladin. Someone had to pay for this. 

Over the coming years, life went on. But the trauma of that day, and the weeks that followed, changed us forever. Like many other Americans, my naïveté persisted throughout. Feelings of anger and helplessness made me vulnerable, and easily manipulated. And thusly, I found myself apathetic to the events that followed - surely, I thought, America's subsequent list of legislation granting government a slew of unilateral powers were good-intentioned reforms that would keep us safe. . And surely, these same people would not lie directly to the American people about Al Qaeda's connection to Saddam Hussein and their nuclear weapons en route to war in Iraq. 

Years later, America still suffers from those missteps after 9/11. Missteps the American public mostly laments today.

Our government continues to exercise the unilateral powers it was granted nearly 20 years ago in a frighteningly widespread manner. Meanwhile, the fallout from the war in Iraq cost over 4,000 American lives and shattered an already unstable Middle East.  16, 17, 18, 19, 20-year old me watched on in those days without understanding, more and more so clinging to the hope that my own government wouldn't take advantage of my visceral reaction to the attack. 

The country learned a lot from that experience. We're generally less receptive to fighting wars and want reforms made to the Patriot Act . There is a strong skepticism of government and its institutions' ability to legally track and collect data of American citizens.

But while Americans perhaps wisened up in some ways, the damage was already been done. In the days, months, and years that followed Sep. 11, the government was able to normalize and standardize these aspects of American society that we mostly loath today, but now begrudgingly accept. America may be wiser in 2018 with respect to these issues, but it was 2001-2003 America that needed to be more skeptical. We still pay that price every day. 

2020 - Different Attack. Similar Emotions.

The Coronavirus, and the presence of a global pandemic on our shores, represents a completely different attack than that of Sep. 11. The enemy is "invisible," as pundits and politicians love to proclaim. And unlike 9/11, we can all can actually make a difference this time by social distancing, good hygiene, and more. And hopefully, government is doing all it can to mitigate the pandemic. 

Any direct comparison between 9/11 and Coronavirus, is of course haphazard, at best. The nature of the attack, and how we are fighting back is fundamentally different. The pandemic is spread throughout the country, and not centered in one place like a military or terrorist attack, forcing the country to fully lock down in some places, close schools and non-essential businesses, as we simply sit and wait in hopes that to at least some extent, we can "flatten the curve."

The worst is yet to come. The pain and suffering will be spread out across a long period, as the virus hits different parts and areas of the country. In the coming weeks, we'll feel that trauma as we watch the healthcare system in New York City inevitably break in the coming days. We'll hear and see stories of death right in front of us. And soon, everyone will suffer a similar plight as the virus spreads. If a hospital system like New York City's can break, that isn't good news for rural areas, where access to healthcare is even more limited. In Dougherty County, Georgia, for instance,  hospitals have told doctors and nurses to continue working, even if they're sick. 

The pandemic will hit all of us. Urban. Rural. Black. White. Men. Women. Young. Old. (specific groups are most vulnerable to hospitalization and death). We will all feel it in some way. The same way we felt it on September 11. The natures and realities of the attack are completely different. And the trauma we are all going to end up feeling in the coming months won't come all at once as it did when the towers fell. But we will all indeed go through that trauma, at one point or another. 

When we do feel that trauma, no matter when that happens, we cannot react as I, and so many others, did on Sep. 12, 2001. Hopefully we have learned from that experience - hopefully we realize that our emotions, no matter how justified, can make us easily lead astray. We should now know that people in power will try and manipulate the situation to their advantage, dragging us along thanks to our naïveté. We should've known that in 2001. But we didn't understand it. The last time our country had felt the trauma of an attack within our borders had been nearly 50 years ago. Even if you knew the history, it was hard to explain how people must have felt. And in that sense, much of America was no different from 16-year old me in September of 2001, trying to find a way to mentally come out the other side of a crisis within our borders that was truly traumatizing, and unique to their life experience. 

In the months that come, politicians will try to take advantage of our trauma. People in power will disregard science and evidence for their own personal gains. Politicians will use the virus as an excuse to close our borders. Police departments will use the virus as a way to track American citizens to make sure they are social distancing.They'll do it under the guise of "nationalism" and our "safety." They'll paint these maneuvers as wholly necessary to "fight a war." Some of those moves, like much of congress' recently-passed recovery bill, are the right ones. After all, there are a plethora of drastic, but important and necessary moves, needed to "fight a war." But as the crisis continues and our anger intensifies, history tells us that the intentions of those in power will become more clouded. We cannot allow ourselves to be mislead once again. If we do, the damage will be long-lasting and more immense than the virus itself, just as our response to 9/11 cost more lives than the actual attack, and shaped much of our society in a way in which we do not approve of today.

The threats of Coronavirus and Sep. 11 are very different. But our feelings of grief will be the same. And now, unlike so many of did in 2001, we know exactly how that collective grief feels, and what can come of it, both good and bad. Let's hope we react better than the last time we felt such collective trauma. This is our test. A test that may define the country we live in for many, many years to come.

Wash your hands.