Now the Aftermath of September 11

(L-R) Robert Jay Lifton, Edward T. Linenthal and Penny Owen

This week, ceremonies are being held at the World Trade Center site, marking the formal end of the recovery aftermath of this terrorist "atrocity." Edward T. Linenthal, Professor of Religion and American Culture at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, used the term "atrocity" at a panel discussion in Manhattan on May 1, under the auspices of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and New York University. Professor Linenthal, author of a book on the Oklahoma City bombing, The Unfinished Bombing—Oklahoma City in American Memory, emphasized that what happened to the World Trade Center was an "atrocity," and not a "tragedy." He also decried "closure" as a "horrendous term."

Another panelist was Robert Jay Lifton, Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at John Jay College in New York City, and also a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School. Professor Lifton was co-writer (with Martin J. Sherwin) of a letter that appeared in the New York Times on May 15, supporting Israeli soldiers who have refused to fight in the West Bank in response to the campaign of terrorist atrocities waged against Israel. Professor Lifton did not use the term "atrocity" in the letter—nor, as I recall, in his remarks on May 1. He did point out, in his remarks, that in order to justify their actions, people who "kill large numbers of people" must hold "a claim to virtue." Not totally discounting the word "evil" as applied to terrorists, Professor Lifton indicated that the word should not be used to polarize, arguing that the goal should be to limit, not increase, violence.

Professor Lifton's latest book, dealing with apocalyptic violence and global terrorism, is Destroying the World to Save It. The focus of the book is the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, a group that released deadly gas on a Tokyo subway train on March 20, 1995, killing eleven people and injuring several thousand. The volume concludes, "The better we understand this avant-garde cult, the wiser we may become in dealing with future cultic violence and with the profound social conflicts that give rise to it." There were very few questions at the May 1 panel discussion. Professor Lifton was not asked if it is folly to seek a social basis for violently antisocial conduct. He did express his doubt "whether present policies are making us safer." I do not recall hearing him say what policies would make us more secure.

The other panelists were Penny Owen, who covered the Oklahoma City bombing as well as the trial and execution of Timothy McVeigh for the Daily Oklahoman, and Fred Ritching, who had been a photography editor for the New York Times magazine and was now a photography professor at NYU. Ms. Owen agreed with Professor Linenthal that "closure" was not a good term in writing about the aftermath of terrorism, and she pointed to suicides and divorces and the ongoing need for counseling in Oklahoma City to indicate that that city has not reached "closure." Ms. Owen suggested that the aftermath of the World Trade Center "atrocity" (she accepted Professor Linenthal's term, while acknowledging she had called the attack a "tragedy") will not soon reach "closure," either. Reporter Owen indicated that it is not possible to exclude emotion in writing about the aftermath of terrorism, but added that writers have "the need to have some objectivity." And, referring to September 11, she cautioned: "Keep in mind, you're in this for the long haul." One grim lesson she related at the panel discussion is that terrorism's atrocities "really can happen anywhere."

Robin Lyon (L) upon finishing the singing of "God Bless America" at the opening ceremony of the Broadway Show League

Professor Ritchin remarked that the media had refused to print photographs of people who jumped from the Twin Towers. During the question period, Professor Lifton said that he thought such "images of ultimate horror" should have been made public.

One week later, at the 20th reunion dinner of my law school, New York Law School, the only law school in the immediate vicinity of the World Trade Center, another member of the Class of 1982 told me that he had been heading to court that morning of September 11, and saw people jumping from the buildings. He managed to get to his car and drive from the area, but was stopped by a policeman who told him to fill his car with pedestrians. One passenger sat in the car, expressionless, and said, a few times: "I was on the 68th floor."

On May 16, the Broadway Show League held its official opening. The league consists of softball teams from Manhattan's theater productions. The opening ceremony honored a firefighter, Steve Mercado, who played in the league and was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11. Robin Lyon sang "God Bless America." She has been playing in this softball league since 1983, when she was in the cast of A Chorus Line. As she sang the words to a song that I have heard so many times since September 11, I found myself choking up a bit.

Penny Owen was right. The human emotion that is bound up with the September 11 aftermath will not easily admit of closure. Let us be thankful when those who are grieving find sources of comfort, sources perhaps more easily attainable if, as the May 1 panelists suggested to me, we speak clearly and honestly about September 11 and its aftermath—applying the instruction for the common good.