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NOTICE:
The International Emergency Management Society's Transportation Saftey and Security Workshop Janurary 28-29th 2003
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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management
Crisis and Emergency Management
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NOTICE: The ICDRM's monthly emergency managment forum, held at the GWU. Next Forum: contact infor: |
| December 2002
Volume 3 - Number 3 |
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Links:
Current events
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The Balance of Fear and Denial
By Elizabeth Whitaker
It was 10:00 a.m. September 11th 2001. I had just said goodbye to my mother and, dog at my side, was preparing to drive to D.C. when the phone rang. Had I been watching the news? No. Why? “They just bombed the World Trade Center.” Minutes later I saw the video of the plane plowing into the World Trade Center. And I was indeed terrified. For a moment, I was prepared to allow my fear make a major decision for me. Maybe I shouldn’t go to D.C. However, it wasn’t long before the desire to cling to some modicum of normalcy prevailed. Besides, what if something like this never happened again? If I didn’t go to grad school now, then when? Thirty minutes later I was climbing back into the U-Haul, saddled with an attitude somewhere between resignation and damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead. I was still scared but choosing to ignore it. I think they call that denial. I call it a perfectly reasonable method of coping. I coped quite well over the weeks and months that followed. I went about my daily life without changing my routine much. I got up at about 6:00 every morning, walked my dog, went to work, went to school, not thinking too much about the possibility that I might find myself in the path of a second round of terrorist attacks. At first I expected the town to empty out. But people kept coming. The universities reported receiving record numbers of applications. And my somewhat perverted fantasy that the attack would cause the price of housing in the District to fall was summarily quashed. Were we all in denial? Or was our fear simply finding other outlets? More likely the latter. Fear takes away our sense of control. The irony is that in trying to regain control, we often wind up relinquishing it. I ranked among those who gave up flying for the first couple of months after September 11th. When I did finally fly, I waited cheerfully in the lines at security checkpoints. Later when airport security wanted me to take off my shoes, I gladly did so and subjected the soles of my naked feet to intense scrutiny. But more disturbing than my lost modesty was the fact that I found myself questioning how much I really needed those personal freedoms guaranteed me by the Constitution. Did I really mind if the FBI could listen in on my conversations or read my personal e-mail? I had nothing to hide. Hey, if it would help prevent future attacks, why not? A CBS/New York Times poll conducted shortly after the September 11 attacks found that I was not alone, 79 percent of Americans were asking the same question. So while we still went about our daily lives, we were not in denial. Fear was affecting how we thought and behaved. But our fear was channeling itself in positive ways as well. We sought to better understand the source of our fear. After September 11th, Americans paid attention to international affairs in record numbers. For many, this was the first time that they had a sense for how our lives are intertwined with people around the world and that what we do here matters to them. To some extent these changes in us are here to stay. But I hope we once again learn to trust the wisdom of our forefathers who saw fit to guarantee us certain freedoms. I also hope that we don’t forget that the policies of this country matter to the rest of the world and that we are an inextricable part of the global community. Meanwhile, code red warnings come and go. I still get up at about 6:00 every morning, walk my dog, go to work, go to school, the fear of a potential assailant lurking in the shadows something I continue to ignore….Ah, glorious denial. |