Planes, Buildings, and America
by: Charles Figley
There are those planes flying into buildings in New York again. Every year there is at least one replay during the anniversary. This year being the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, there will be lots of replaying of video and, as a result, a replaying of memories by lots of those who were there at the time. The New York Times and others have been reporting what we have learned or not learned since the attacks.
My wife, Kathy, reminded me that we were having breakfast at the Lunch Box, after attending my first Parent Teacher Student Organization at Sail High School as President. "A plane just flew into a building in NY," she said when I returned to the table after parking the car. We watched, transfixed in that little restaurant as we all watched the tiny television mounted in a corner. Within minutes Kathy suggested, "we need to get to the Green Cross office, we need our traumatologists to be ready when we are called." As she predicted, in two days Green Cross had received a formal request for services from a local union (32BJ SEIU) who sustained considerable loss of its members working in the Towers and surrounding buildings and the responsibility for caring for the survivors and the victim and survivor families. The Union's Manhattan office was and is 101 Avenue of the Americas with 800 headquarters employees and thousands of members who witnessed the 9/11 Attack from their offices and work places, as noted elsewhere, the deployment went well and provided the kind of emotional support and structure needed during those darkest days. In addition to the achievements of the Green Cross was the collaboration among colleagues in New York that resulted in this special issue and a number of scientific contributions.
Three things stand out for me personally. First was the unexpected calm we found when we arrived mid-day the Sunday following the attack. It was a beautiful fall day with everyone going about his or her lives with seeming normality and with extraordinary civility unlike the typical, busy New Yorker. And then we began to see the fliers of missing family and friends feared killed in the attack. Hundreds of fliers everywhere but especially where many people would likely see them (Figley & Figley, 2001). Leadership is for me the second thing that stood out from the 9/11 catastrophe over the decade since. After being involved in trauma and disaster studies most of my 30+ years I have had the opportunity to witness disaster resilience leadership. New York's Mayor Rudy Giuliani and first responders immediately stand out. However, there were the unnamed nurses, physicians, and other professionals who tended to the injured despite the obvious distractions as well as inventing and leading the production of new and better procedures for helping survivors --- both in body and soul.
It was a moment in American history when the eyes of the world were on America and Americans. How would they respond? Nearly everyone in the world felt considerable compassion for us all and it was appreciated. What many leaders worried about was the potential backlash toward Muslims and those of Arab descent or origin; that American values of individual rights and innocent until proven guilty would prevail.
Those who demonstrated leadership but did not receive as much widespread recognition were the college presidents. New York University President, John Sexton's actions, just months after becoming President prior to the planes attacking buildings in New York, immediately coordinated pervasive care and accounting of all students and faculty. My own university's President at the time, Florida State University's President Sandy D'alemberte and former Law School Dean, D'alemberte, spoke out immediately for us faculty and students to do our best to contain and dissipate any hostility toward Muslims; that they also died in these 9/11 attacks. It was during those early days when there was considerable fear and calls for revenge.
The final thing that stood out for me personally was the amount of fear that was everywhere including my then hometown of then Tallahassee, Florida. For example, I presented an educational workshop that discussed the Green Cross efforts in New York, the services provided, and offers of the same services to any employee who might need stress management. The workshop was located in the Capital Building and I was invited by the State Senate staff who reported wide-spread fear about the their personal danger because they worked in a 22-story building where Governor Jeb Bush worked. Jeb Bush is the brother of US President George W. Bush whose election was won, in part, because of his brother Jeb's help. The US Presidential election results were in dispute due to Florida's disputed election results that were eventually decided by the US Supreme Court decided in favor of George Bush. There was real anger about how the election was "stolen" by the Bush brothers. An entire state government was nearly frozen with fear during those days following 9/11 in part because of the fear of a plane flying into the 22-story State of Florida Senate Building. Some of the fear was a direct result of the endless showing of clips of the jet plans flying into the World Trade Center twin towers.
For lots of reasons America was transformed during the last ten years. From an America with people who are freedom-loving, extraverted, engaged in the world for social justice to something unlike America. Leaders, drawing upon the fear induced by 9/11, called for a far greater sense of security. This has included our airports with security procedures that require children and wheel-chair-bound elderly to be patted down at airports.
Planes, buildings, and America are intimately and permanently joined in our memories. September 11th was a carefully planned attack on America to scare and disorient us. The upcoming year would include a speedy entry into a war within Afghanistan and soon after that, entering another war in Iraq. All were under the guise of "remembering 9/11"; to "fight the terrorist over there rather than over here."
It didn't work. The recent debt-ceiling debacle illustrates that after ten years we are more divided than ever. America has been transformed not just by the terrorist attacks a decade ago but our continuing struggle to preserve our American heritage. Leadership is an "art," as Eisenhower said, that is sorely missing in today's discourse. It is the . . . "art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Americans have been waiting for 10 years for a leader to follow; someone who can balance freedom and fear; someone who is fearless and maintaining American values of social justice, civility, and compassion. We trust that leader will emerge soon.
References
Boscarino, J. A., Figley, C. R. and Adams, R. E. (2003). Fear of Terrorism One Year after the Terrorist Attacks in New York City: Implications for Public Mental Health. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 5:4, 199-209.
Boscarino, J. A., Adams, R. E. & Figley, C. R. (2011). Mental Health Treatment Services after the World Trade Center Disaster: Utilization Trends and Comparative Effectiveness Findings, Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 199:2, 91-99.
Figley, C. R. (2003). Fishing Lessons for Treating the Traumatized: History of the Traumatology Certification Program. Traumatology, 9:4, 187-192.
Figley, C. R. (2004). From Necessity to Reality: The History, Philosophy, and Programs of the Green Cross Foundation. Traumatology, 10:1, 55-56.
Figley, C. R. and Figley, K. R. (2001). September 11th terrorist attack: Application of disaster management principles in providing emergency mental health services. Traumatology, 7:4, 143-150
Figley, C. R. and Figley, K. R. (2002). The Green Cross Project: A model for providing emergency mental health aid after September 11. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 82:2, 42-48.
Figley, C. R., Figley, K. R. & Norman, J. (2002). Tuesday Morning September 11, 2001: The Green Cross Projects Role as a Case Study in Community-Based Traumatology Services. Journal of Trauma Practice, 1:4, 13-36UH.
Roberts, S., Weaver, A.J., Flannelly, K. J. and Figley, C. R. (2003). Compassion Fatigue Among Chaplains and Other Clergy after September 11th. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 191:11, 756-758.
