Jon Callas: Editorial

[R. A. Hettinga]

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Status:  U
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 18:45:16 -0700
To: "The Eristocracy" <Eristocracy at merrymeet.com>
From: Jon Callas <jon at callas.org>
Subject: Editorial
Sender: <Eristocracy at merrymeet.com>
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One of my goals for The Eristocracy has always been to provide what othe r
information outlets aren't providing. Over the last week, that's been
silence. Also, as one of my heroes, Judith Martin, said about death and
funerals, when there's nothing you can say, the best thing to say is
nothing, but "I'm so sorry" is never out of place. I'm so sorry.

They say that an optimist is never pleasantly surprised. Me, I'm always
pleasantly surprised. It is interesting to watch the hopeful people --
they're the ones who are rubbing their hands together with glee at the
thought hat all that money they sank into Y2K supplies might not have been
wasted after all. The End Of The World As We Know It didn't arrive, and
like the religious nuts who keep revising their timetable for Armageddon,
they're crossing their fingers that this time it's for real.

However, all through this, I've been pleasantly surprised time and time
again. Here are a number of things I've been pleasantly surprised over:

* I was woken up Tuesday by my security chums in Toronto, who called to say
that the East Coast was in flames, and maybe I should get out of bed. Their
quick assessment of what was going on included a casualty estimate of
100,000 people dead, and another 100,000 injured. I watched the news for a
while, and thought, no, no, that's not right. It's probably in the
neighborhood of 20 to 50 thousand dead. As I write, it's five to ten
thousand dead, and far closer to five than ten. I think we have those few
hundred fire and police workers who died to thank for this.

* Watching the news has been almost like watching a movie. As silly as it
sounds, I can't watch some of the films of the disaster without thinking,
"That looks so real!" However, it's *almost* been like a movie. I can tell
it's real and not fiction because of all sorts of little anticlimactic
things that have gone on. People helped each other. There've been a variety
of troubles, but it hasn't been dramatic. The news commented a lot on how
quiet things are. We don't have Escape From New York, and we don't have
Independence Day.

* Officialdom has been surprisingly rational. Not without exception, of
course. The new FAA regulations mostly punish the innocent; real changes
that would improve safety will take years to design and implement. There's
the inevitable call for crypto restrictions. Feinstein is taking up Helms's
mantle. We're going to have to gently slap these things down. What part of
"the price of freedom is eternal vigilance" don't you understand? But we
haven't heard cries of finding the people responsible no matter what it
takes. They've glibly blurted out that horrible things happened to the
Japanese in WWII, and we're not going to do that again. People were
detained and released without splashing their names all over the news. The
poor guys who got their identities stolen got huge and repeated apologies.

* Giuliani. Wow. He's good. I picked my jaw up when he said, "New Yorkers
don't do that" in response to questions about violence on Arabs. He was
stunningly good again just an hour ago. Pataki, too.

* They played The Star-Spangled Banner at the Changing of the Guard in
London. They played it *before* God Save The Queen. This is the biggest
compliment we've gotten since Elizabeth apologized on behalf of Parliament
for that little incident in 1776, and Phil quaffed a Sam Adams (I'm not
making that up). Thank you! They literally shut down the highways in
Ireland for a moment of remembrance. There are some really, really funny
sites in Australia. Even better, our allies are backing us while urging
moderation. That's what you want, friends to hold you by the arms while you
snarl and think about what to do.

There's still a lot to be worried about. Fine, okay, this is an act of war.
But how to we get *out* of this war? How do we keep them from winning? If
we're going to increase security, we need to come up with measures that
will work without leaving what good there is in being an American in a pile
of rubble. There does, however, seem to be every indication that we're
going to muddle on through. Let's hope there are a lot more pleasant
surprises in the days to come.

	Jon

--- end forwarded text


-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



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