Issue 22 : Jan/Feb 2002
I wrote the editorial for the November/December issue on September 10 and handed it in the next day. It made no reference to the events of September 11. When you publish every two months, you tend to stay away from current events. I wasn’t sure we would ever discuss terrorism in this magazine. I wasn’t sure it had anything to do with sailing. Now it looks like this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint, so maybe there are some things worth saying in this venue.
Others have observed that nothing is going to be quite the same ever again. On September 10, most people felt pretty safe. Most people literally couldn’t imagine that they and their loved ones were in any danger from terrorist attack. The next day they saw that their fellow citizens could be slaughtered by the thousands. They felt fear and terror, as our enemies intended.
The civilian population of our country has not felt these kinds of fears since World War II and has not experienced such massive losses since the Civil War. We are not likely to be able to feel as secure as we did on September 10 any time soon. Perhaps never again. This isn’t Kansas anymore, Toto.
But I’m talking to sailors here, and most sailors already know that they don’t have to feel absolutely safe all the time. Coin collecting would be safer, but they have chosen sailing. Such risks as sailing may pose are either not entirely understood or are considered acceptable. Either way works.
The object of terrorism is to spread fear among a large population and so impose the political and military will of the small group on the larger. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.
There is nothing really new here; it is just new to us. We can look to other times and places for how to deal with this. Londoners in the Blitz, for example, displayed the courage we need to understand. Other countries have endured acts of terrorism on a regular basis for many years. We can learn from these people, too.
Percentagewise, terrorists don’t actually attack very many people. Their goal is to kill a few people and frighten the rest. This is a very efficient process when it works.
But it does not have to work.
On any given day, for any person who is not actually attacked, the battle is between that person and his or her own fear. There is no courage without fear, and courage can be learned. On those days when a person discharges his or her responsibilities effectively and enjoys the pleasures that life may offer, the person wins the battle, and the terrorists lose.
The popular culture of September 10 was based, to some regrettable degree, on the media entertaining and motivating the population by shocking it. Things that were shocking only a few years ago had lost their effect, and so more shocking things were devised. On September 11, the events were more shocking than most of us could ever contemplate, and we were not amused.
Sailors who have been on a boat in threatening circumstances have probably observed that fear can spread through a crew very rapidly, and that it will degrade their performance. They know this is to be avoided. I would hope that my fellow members of the media would take this opportunity to truly understand their responsibilities, and that they would not assist the terrorists in spreading fear. Our citizens need to be informed; they do not need to be shocked. This is a time when duty demands a higher degree of professionalism and objectivity from our media. I sincerely hope they rise to the occasion.
Sailors who have been on a boat in threatening circumstances with a crew that possessed both confidence and competence probably look back on the experience as a positive one. A good crew does not let fear spread, and they are the safer and more comfortable for it.
We are not in any greater danger now than we were on September 10. That was the illusion; this is the reality. It is time to study and acquire the virtues of courage and toughness, and it is time for all of us to prevent the fear from spreading. If we do this, life will be more or less normal for most of us most of the time.
It seems to me that the duties of citizenship and love and family have not changed in the light of recent events, and when we have discharged these duties, we can still be proud. And there still will be time to go sailing.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
