On 9/11, I came downstairs and the phone rang. A friend of my youngest son asked if he was okay. I didn’t know. Our son lives in New York City and he spent the day running from building to building with a dust mask on about a mile and half from the twin towers. My wife and I finally got e-mails from him. He saw the twin towers collapsed from his office window in real time.

By the end of the day, I thought how much work went into the terrorists plotting to gain control of 4 airplanes that were planned to crash into the twin towers, pentagon, and the white house.
Three succeeded. I thought to myself, how foolish they were to stop at that level of destruction.

Terrorism is not about capturing a territory. It is rather scaring and antagonizing an enemy’s population. For many, the attack on New York City and Washington DC would leave the impression that day that most everyone else who lived in hinterlands was…safe.

It occurred to me that if car bombs had gone off in malls, near federal buildings, in downtown areas or any where that had lots of people, few would be hurt or killed.
However, most of us would be terrified. How come Al Queda did not have car bombs go off in Fargo, North Dakota? Salt Lake City, Utah? Des Moines, Iowa? Missoula, Montana?

If all that damage and commotion, occurred on the same day as 9/11, locals everywhere would think that they could be next. That is the pinnacle of terrorism. Am I next?

We continually live with uncertainty. We may die of AIDS, SARS, auto accidents, airplane crashes. In most of these instances, there still is reasoning that we may not make the choice that would do us in. Further, it is not our fault in many instances. An accident and ill health happen, sometimes without our conscious choice.

However, accidents and terrorist acts differ. Someone wants to kill someone and it may be us. Terrorist acts become part of our life and we may come to a tipping point that we crave order and will want things that may or may not help us, but (we believe) will bring back order.

If we have to choose between liberty and order, in a New York minute, we will chose order. In other words, a heavily controlled benign police state is better than an open democratic society filled with random and not so random acts of terror. That is the rub. We either elect leaders who provide security and/or perhaps make accommodations to terrorists or wipe them out or we could turn on each other. We do carry on, but the journey becomes cloudy and fearful. A soft democratic fascism emerges because we want it. We become technologically monitored and gently order about in our daily lives. We do this to survive.

If the terrorism stops, will the society become more open again? That question is not easily answered... Further, the global information society connects us with the world and makes us more vulnerable.

Terrorists want the States to stop international intervention and also to turn on each other.
Random constancy of terrorist acts tips democrats into autocrats. Returning back to democracy is a chancy business. Many may not want to return to openness.

Much of the world lives under authoritarian governments. It can happen here. Not because we are fighting against it and lose, but rather are fighting for it and win.

Life is full of conundrums.