In a sense 11 September was the ultimate mugging, a murderous assertion of a new reality, or rather a reality that already existed but which we preferred not to see. Over the years I had absorbed a notion of liberalism that was passive, defeatist, guilt-ridden. Feelings of guilt governed my world view: post-colonial guilt, white guilt, middle-class guilt, British guilt. But if I was guilty, 9/11 shattered my innocence. More than anything it challenged us all to wake up and open our eyes to what was real. It took me far too long to meet that challenge. For while I realised almost straight away that 9/11 would change the world, it would be several years before I accepted that it had also changed me. I had been wrong. This was my story, after all.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
A Liberal Sees the Light
SOME people on the left had the common sense to question their beliefs after 9/11. The writer Andy Anthony was one of them. He tells us all about it -- although in the typical self-indulgent, long-winded liberal style. If he's going to become a conservative, he's going to have to be more pithy.
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That's a powerful testimony, LR! Thanks for finding it and sharing it.
It's amazingly similar to my own...though I was already a conservative libertarian (heh, heh) prior to that day.
I was 38. My youngest child was born at 10:40 a.m. CDT on 9/11/01. The first building collapsed as my wife was being prepared for a c-section...my father and I had slipped down to the cafeteria and saw it on the dining area TV.
I had awakened my wife in her hospital bed just before the image of the North Tower popped up on GMA...she was eating her breakfast. We watched on as the South Tower was impacted.
I knew immediately that the world was a new one...and said so to my wife.
Amazing day...unforgettable on a number of levels for us.
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