Moments in Time
To say that this year has been a newsworthy year would be an underwhelming statement of gigantic proportions. Even before September 11 this news year had had plenty to talk about. Mr. George “Don’t call me Dubya” Bush won a hotly contested presidency over Mr. Al “Count every vote, twice if you have to” Gore. Turns out Mr. Gore might have had a case, as in an otherwise newsworthy finding it was revealed that after every vote had been tallied, hanging chads and all, he should have indeed become president. This finding did not make headlines, but rather was lost in the shuffle as the country scurried to make sense of the new American landscape, post Sept 11.
A huge story from last year, the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, faded from mind as other stories of the day came to the front, as they have a habit of doing. Another victim of the big story of our day, the Kursk was raised from its deathbed on the floor of the Arctic Ocean, but with little fanfare.
What strikes me about these two stories is the amount of media frenzy surrounding both when the story broke. Both events had sustained media coverage. The Quest for the Presidency, as Bush v. Gore was dubbed, lingered for a month or more on every major news outlet. This was The Story of the year. Now it is just a memory, mere happenstance as it may seem to us now. We look back and ask what the big deal was. Didn’t we know that the sky was going to fall later in the year? Why weren’t we cracking down on Osama bin Laden before he could do us real harm? Afghanistan wasn’t even on our collective national radar.
Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back, of course we could not have known. And because you know exactly to what I refer we look back from without me being more than just a little vague, you can begin to understand, if you have not already, the enormous impact that the events of this year have had on everyone.
Before September 11, our national identity was anyone’s guess. We were this, we were that, with a little bit of this other thrown in for good measure. Today we are not so much a hodgepodge of cultures as one that is covered in soot and ash, twisted metal and searing jet fuel. Our national hero is no longer a bald-headed basketball player, but a collection of heroes in uniform, servants of the community. FDNY and NYPD hats are highly visible now. Patriotism is higher now than it has been since the Gulf War.
We feel vulnerable now. We feel vulnerable like we haven’t felt since Pearl Harbor.
The most highly visible country on the planet, the one that continues to have a finger in every pie, armed forces stationed in every corner of the globe, the freest market economy in the world, we are vulnerable. We are hurt. We will survive. This mantra we repeat to ourselves day in, day out. We believe in the American Way, even if we do have to look to the sky every now and again to make sure great steel beasts aren’t falling in our direction.
It is said that time heals all wounds. Ask any veteran of any hard-fought conflict if time has fully healed his wounds. When the flesh forgets, the mind remembers. Nevertheless, time will make these memories fade. In time, our memory of an entire news article fades to knowledge of the picture and headline, then to only of the picture. We do not forget the pictures, not the important ones. Armed with this knowledge, I set out to make this scrapbook.
Sitting here, I can remember little of the events before September 11. I had to go to the Times to refresh my memory. I doubt I am alone in this aspect. Because of this, I decided that it would be better to begin with the faded memories before the attacks. This editorial decision is the reason I have used more headlines than full-length stories in parts of the archive.
I do remember that the economy, while not in an outright tailspin perhaps, was definitely in a slump. Needless to say, having the literal financial centers of the world collapse did not help. The trickle down effect of such an event is sure to be something to behold. Jobs are cut at every turn.
President Bush faces a crucial decision in another area also, which he appears to have made long ago. Recently Bush declared his plan to renege on the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, allowing the US to test a proposed missile defense shield, but moreover tilt the balance of power in the nuclear age.
Between these issues is the anthrax story, the second front of the war on terrorism. While I am quite disturbed by the anthrax scare, I do not believe it will be as important in 50 years as the ABM treaty. Due to this belief, I have limited the anthrax angle of this archive.
As turbulent as these times are, sports is still an issue, still relevant to our society. I have tried to reflect this belief as best as possible through baseball. The scene at Yankee Stadium during the World Series with President Bush defying the terrorists by a token thumbs up will stay with me for quite some time. Even after the captions fade, the context of the picture will stay engrained in my memory, such was the magnitude of this moment.
Finally, as my last section, I chose to go with a “picture worth a thousand words” motif. The vast majority of the pictures are from the distant past, but relevant current history-makers have been thrown into the mix. For the faces of our current national emergency that can no longer speak, may their silence speak volumes to the faces of the future.