Posted by Robert Riversong (209.91.10.63) on September 26, 2001 at 21:22:43:
The horrific tragedy of 9/11 was compounded by the selfless and overwhelming response to 911 by police, fire, and emergency medical personnel who gave their all to serve and save the lives of complete strangers, for that is the creed of emergency responders.
A firefighter will respond without judgement to any fire to save life and property, even if it is known or suspected to be deliberately set, even if those who need rescuing are those who started the fire. After the loss of six firefighters at the Worcester MA warehouse who entered the inferno to search for the homeless who were known to frequent the building, there was no call for revenge - only deep grief and an inspiring demonstration of solidarity.
Now the nation is in solidarity in its justified grief and anger caused by the terror of that fateful Tuesday. But this time the calls for retaliation are drowning out the cries of anguish. We are launching a "crusade" as our president so insensitively stated. We are engaged in a "holy war" against evil to rid the world of terrorism and all who abet it.
There is no disagreement that the perpetrators, the planners, the organizers, the supporters, the financiers of Tragic Tuesday's atrocities must be ferreted out and brought to justice. But using the military to root out terrorism is like deploying the entire NYPD to rid the city of rats. First, it is the wrong tool for the job - there will be a great deal of "collateral damage". And second, no amount of firepower can exterminate an entire population of vermin because as fast as they can be discovered and dispatched, they will multiply and regenerate.
The only way to eliminate or minimize the threat of voracious rodents nibbling at the toes of our children as they lie, innocent, in their beds is to rid the city of the garbage, filth, and disarray which feeds them.
Until we move to rid the world of the ugly desperation which feeds envy, hate, fanaticism and violence, we will never be safe from its consequences. If we respond with far greater firepower than can be mustered by unaligned terrorists and nations already weakened by poverty, war, and starvation, then we will do nothing but fan the fires of discontent and encourage massive conversions to fanaticism and an escalating reciprocal response.
Every firefighter knows that there are three ways to put out a conflagration. You can remove the fuel (the desperation which feeds the flames of consuming hatred). You can smother the oxygen (the social/political atmosphere which encourages the sparks of injustice to burst into the holocaust of madness). Or you can cool the reaction with water (dampen the fervor of zealotry by acknowledging our part in the creation of the conflict or the injustice and offering to assist in its resolution).
And it shouldn't take a firefighter to understand that you can't extinguish a fire by fanning the flames or pouring accelerants on it. It is true that there are times we are forced to undertake a "prescribed burn" to reduce an excess of fuel when our previous interventions in the order of things have disturbed its delicate balance. But, as we have tragically seen, such aggressive tactics can quickly get out of hand and result in a wide-ranging conflagration that we cannot control and that ultimately consumes us.
Most importantly, no one puts on the turnout gear of a firefighter until they have undertaken a course of study in the nature or fire and the appropriate response to it. If we wish, as a nation and a united world, to eliminate the threat of terror, we must begin with an understanding of its nature, its causes, and the responses which will truly lessen its danger.
Certainly, we need to install more smoke detectors to give us early warning. But we also need to help clean up the firetraps of the world - the poverty, the injustice, the demagoguery, the ignorance, the intolerance - which are the ingredients of desperate fanaticism. And we have to remember that no firefighter rushes into a battle propelled by burning passion, but only by a calm, practiced, and considered desire to reduce the heat, quench the flames, and restore order to a frightening chaos.