An Awakening

They were a little bit like comets that day in September, flights 11, 77, 93 and 175, as they sailed through the sky, finally exploding on impact with two of the most provocative symbols of American culture. And when they hit, fiery explosions left blazing wreckage, smoke, ash and destruction. The images of suffering left by these surprise attacks from the sky were instantaneously burned into Americans' brains forever. \nComets, Shakespeare wrote, were signs from the heavens foretelling disaster. The helpless commercial flights aimed at the American landmarks Sept. 11 weren't cosmic accidents forewarning catastrophe; they were meticulously planned acts of war. But they brought with them disaster and devastation, and, in Shakespeare's words, a change of times and states. \nChange of Times\n"I think what Sept. 11 was for a lot of people was a real eye-opening experience," said Michelle Johns, an IU instructor in the political science department and graduate student of comparative conflict. "The American public was pretty naive in terms of existing threats; the notion of anyone attacking the United States just hasn't been a big concern.\n"For one thing, we've always had the benefit of geographic distance, with oceans on both sides, and for another we've been one of the world's most powerful countries almost since conception. I think this has taken the blinders off to our vulnerability."\nMonitoring these kinds of changes in public sentiment in post-attack America was the immediate response of news organizations nationwide. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll showed in November that Americans rated terrorism as the most important problem facing the country, with 43 percent of those polled admitting to a fear that they or a family member would become the victim of a terrorist attack. The Institute for Social Research reported 52 percent of poll respondents claimed some level of depression after the attacks and 62 percent claimed restless sleep. \n"I was really taken aback by the whole experience, despite the fact that I had written a paper about what I saw as the greatest threat to American security in the next 25 years," Johns said. "I did, of course, write a little about terrorist attacks, but even as I wrote it, I don't know I ever really believed it was a viable possibility."\nIn his Sept. 20 address to the nation, President Bush called the day an awakening to danger. "Americans have known wars, but for the past 136 years they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941," he said. "Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning." \nWith the shattering of the peace came the shattering of American complacency, Johns said. The emotions experienced on a nationwide basis seemed to be fright but also some levels of anger, resentfulness, pride and patriotism, she said. \n"The main emotion I associate with the Sept. 11 attacks is fear," senior Mike Berkowitz said. "I fear that many people in this country aren't fully aware of the world's view of the U.S. Many people have…realized that there are people out there who don't like us. Because of this our daily lives have changed.\n"No longer can people be trusted. Citizens of this country must realize that we are under attack, and the proper precautions must be taken."\nT-shirts, tents in Dunn Meadow and little flags everywhere\nThe emotions -- fear, pride, anger, patriotism -- felt as aftermath of the attacks have left ripples of visible change. \n"I see the American flag everywhere," junior Amanda Murray said. "It's on cars and on houses, and everybody is wearing that little American flag pin. Also there are the 'I love New York' T-shirts on all sorts of people since the 11th. They're just little changes, but it's noticeable." \nWhile Wal-Mart was selling out of American flags, tents went up in an act of peaceful protest in Dunn Meadow. The day the American bombing began in Afghanistan was the same day this campus, and much of the country, began to see a slightly divisive effect of America's response to the attacks. \nA peace camper who calls himself "Steps-to-Freedom" watched the buildings collapse along with the rest of the nation that morning and said he knew that with the attacks, "things were going to get crazy." But he does not join the surge of patriotism that the polls report. \n"The rights of Americans are being taken away in this process," he said. "And we should have gotten a national coalition together and looked for who was responsible instead of launching into this war the government wanted to protect American economic interests. \n"Wars are fought by the rich, and the poor people die."\nYet polls show the approval rating for both the president and the war on terrorism remain at a steady -- and very high -- 85 to 95 percent. \n"The closest thing to compare to Sept. 11 is Pearl Harbor in terms of caliber of attacks, and just like then, Americans today are willing to make sacrifices abroad and on the home front," Johns said. "American response then was unified and loud, as it is now. Americans have always had this phenomenon of rallying around the flag because I think they really fundamentally believe in the rhetoric of what the country stands for." \nChange of States\nVisible changes in the country have also undeniably reached beyond the social arena to the political arena. Sacrifices that have become part of this patriotic rhetoric seem to go beyond longer lines at the airports and a tougher visa screening process for immigrants. Since the terrorist attacks, there has been a question of the government treading on personal freedoms, which seems to be only mildly questioned now that people think their safety is more directly involved. \n"Americans have always clung to personal freedoms, but they seem to feel now that there is a trade-off involved," Johns said.\nAs of November, 79 percent of the respondents in an ABC/Washington Post poll supported government interviews of about 5,000 young men from the Middle East who were not suspects in the attacks but who were simply in the United States on temporary visas. The government said the interviews were voluntary. Another 58 percent supported the special military tribunal trials for alleged terrorists. These trials have a military judge and jury rather than a jury of peers, and the suspect has no right to appeal. \nJeffrey Isaac is one of 14 professors in the political science department who is teaching a class at IU called "September 11: Before and After." He cites changes in governmental policy as one of the most obvious enduring changes. \n"In foreign policy, the U.S. fought a war in Afghanistan," he said. "We are not involved minimally supporting Afghani reconstruction, and we are involved more generally in some kind of 'war against terrorism.' This involved serious commitments. In my opinion not all of them are good.\n"In domestic policy there is no doubt that the U.S. Patriot Act and the FBI and the Justice Department actions have limited certain kinds of civil liberties and promoted a heightened concern with national security. This too is a significant change."\nThe aftermath\nSince Sept. 11, Congress has passed laws that changed the country's policy on "certain civil liberties." America has gone to war. Protests have arisen. Military enlistment has skyrocketed. Churches, temples and mosques have seen increases in attendance. Everything is red, white and blue.\nAirports have stationed soldiers with guns at the gates. "I love New York" is a new national slogan. The administration, Congress and the military enjoy an almost unprecedented national support. Piles of rubble still stand where the world's tallest buildings used to be. The absence of the innocent victims lost is felt and mourned. \n"Even grief recedes with time and grace," the president said in his Sept. 20 address. \nBut Americans know that the grief has changed the country. The notion that American life has been changed forever with Sept. 11 is an accepted assertion. \nAccording to the curriculum description of IU's "September 11: Before and After" class, "It (Sept. 11) will no doubt prove to be the sort of 'defining moment' that your grandparents found in the Great Depression and World War II and your parents in Kennedy's assassination, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam Wa,r and even Watergate. Defining moments shake our core beliefs about the world, change our views about government and drive us to reevaluate the role we want to play"