Thursday, September 07, 2006

9/11 and Katrina: Does Suburbia Care?

Sometimes it’s easy to think all is right with the world when you live in Suburbia. Take now, for example. It’s Fall and the kids are back in school, the weather is mostly glorious, and our days are filled with anticipation of new friends, school dances and football games, and even the coming holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. The biggest problems people seem to have are reconciling their kids’ conflicting sports schedules, finding the right graphing calculator for a high school math class, and deciding whether a big ski trip out west makes more sense than a bunch of local little ones.

But if you read the paper, you know that all is not right with the world. There’s Iraq, there’s Darfur, there’s Katrina; there’s murder, there’s child abuse, there’s all other manner of crime. Usually when I read the paper I can feel bad for the misfortunes of others for a while, but I also can take comfort from the fact that the choices I’ve made for myself and my family have somewhat insulated us from some of the misfortunes that befall others. We live in the suburbs where schools are good and crime is low. We live in the greatest country on earth, where the American Dream can be achieved with hard work and determination. We can marry who we love and provide a safe nurturing environment for our kids, and try to provide them with every opportunity for success. We vote and feel like we have some hand in our destiny. If there are election problems, we resolve them peacefully. Yes, we out here in suburbia are comfortable.

Maybe we are too comfortable. And that makes me nervous. Here’s a problem: people in Suburbia either are not interested in happenings beyond the borders of our leafy yards and towns, or if they are interested, they don’t have the time or perhaps the inclination to educate themselves. Maybe those soccer games are just too darn distracting. In any case, I’m worried that the threat posed not only to our cushy little lives but also to the very American way of life is going unrecognized by your average Joe. I’m talking about global terrorism generally, and specifically the threat posed by Islamist fanatics. How many people know that Al-Qaeda issued a video last week that called for Bush and non-Muslims, especially those in the U.S., to convert to Islam? The spokesman (their brand of Islam doesn’t let women speak) called for “Americans and the rest of Christendom” to repent, or suffer the consequences in this world and the next. I’m wagering that the vast majority—and I’m talking probably 95%---of Americans don’t know that. When two months ago I told my friend, someone whom I consider to be well-educated and well-informed, that the goal of the Islamists is not just to wipe Israel off the map, but to wipe the U.S. off the map, then western Europe, and force everyone to convert to Islam or die, she expressed disbelief. “You really think so?” were her exact words.

A question: Why don’t Americans know this? I know it’s an easy target, but in large part I blame the media. Sure, the New York Times published a little blurb on September 3 about the Al Qaeda video, at the bottom of what, page 6? Instead of focusing on this very real terror threat, the NYTimes has chosen to saturate the paper with coverage of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I’ve seen precious little about the fact that we are coming up on the 5-year anniversary of 9/11, unless it’s to criticize Bush for the health problems of the first responders. While the paper saw fit to profile the lives of people affected by Katrina, how they can’t get their houses built or businesses going, why aren’t they profiling the lives of the families left behind when their loved ones were murdered on Sept. 11? Not that I don’t have sympathy for the Victims of Hurricane Katrina (have they been elevated to sainthood yet?) But let’s face it. People who live in a flood plain face the possibility of flooding when hit with a hurricane. People who repeatedly have children with one or more absentee fathers tend to live in poverty, and in the face of disaster are more likely to end up in places like the Superdome. (As a little aside here, Anderson Cooper really pissed me off in an appearance on Oprah, when he suggested that had the Superdome been filled with soccer moms, the government response would have been very different. Guess what Anderson? Soccer Moms don’t make choices that would land them in the Superdome in the first place.) Nonetheless, I’m not trying to place the blame on the residents of New Orleans for the disaster but for the most part, people had options, advance warning, and made their choices. Contrast this with the victims of 9/11, who had no warning and were for the most part living responsible productive lives when they were murdered in cold blood. I can’t help but feel that the media (as represented by the NYTimes) is trying to get some kind of mileage out of Katrina instead of focusing on the very real danger represented by the 9/11 attacks and continuing around the world today, five years later. In fact, I’ve seen more media coverage of Katie Couric’s new job than I’ve seen on the five-year anniversary 9/11.

Maybe the media is not solely to blame for public apathy. Today’s NYTimes reports that only 22% in a national poll said they were “very concerned” about another attack in their hometown. The same article says only 29% of New York City residents think about Sept. 11 every day, while 47% report thinking about it just “once in a while.” How can that be? I’m out here in freaking Suburbia in a whole other state and I think about it every day. Just yesterday as I sat in my car at our Temple waiting for my son, it even occurred to me that I could be killed just for being in the parking lot of a Jewish place of worship. But then again, maybe it is the media: if the paper kept the threat in front of people, perhaps people would think about it. Yes, Katrina is important. But Katrina is not the one that has vowed to murder us if we don’t convert to another religion.

I’ve heard right-wingers say that the media is reluctant to report things that make Bush look good. Katrina makes Bush look bad. Secret prisons make Bush look bad. There is no end to media coverage on those subjects. The worst terrorist attacks on American soil in history improved Bush’s standing: when people are afraid, they look to their leaders, flawed or not. Better not focus on it too much. Let’s just stick to mother nature.

If you’ve read this far, do me a favor. Watch the video entitled “The Blood of Heroes.” It's online, about 2 minutes long & you can google it. (I tried to put a link in here but my technical skills are sadly lacking.) Maybe it will remind you what the fight on terror is all about, and how nature’s wrath in the form of a hurricane pales in comparison.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Soccer moms don't make choices that would land them in the Superdome."

Do you have any idea of the implications of that statement?

It's this kind of ignorance that breeds apathy of which you lament in suburbia -- not the media.

September 07, 2006 11:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like this one. It doesn't make you sound like a teenager.

October 29, 2006 3:55 PM  

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