"Wake up. Look at the television. Our country is under attack."
That's how I dragged our kids out of bed – here in the Alaska time zone – the morning of September 11. We held vigil throughout much of the day, prayed, cried, and found joy in the fact that some we had feared dead turned up alive. My wife had worked in the area of the World Trade Center before she moved to Alaska in 1990, and her sister's husband was there. It turns out his crew of electricians had just left the roof of one of the towers and he was down on the street watching the airplanes hit.
We heard later that friends who refused to believe the all-clear signal are alive today because they kept trudging down the stairs. It was another few days before we knew the fate of a 90-year-old friend, who lived in an apartment so close that we had always met in the Twin Towers for breakfast. (He'd been packed off to a hospital, disoriented but fine.)
We were so far, and so close. Other families we know did not have happy endings that day. In the end, like everyone else, we were shocked, sad, and outraged. Our world was so small. The victims were so innocent. Mass murder and genocide were scourges we'd all hoped mankind would leave behind in this new millennium.
Since 9/11, I have said my prayers and paid my respects at two of the three ground zeroes. I have seen my friends and countrymen go off to war, and seen many – too many – return in wooden boxes. As a nation, we look for a "new normal" – one where our liberty and basic security is maintained. As always, these goals conflict.
For me, 9/11 has two lessons: First of all, if we leave ourselves vulnerable, evil people will exploit our vulnerabilities. America was warned about the threat of hijacked aircraft – in government assessments and even in a Tom Clancy novel. We ignored them. Are we ignoring other threats based on wishful thinking? Missile attack from aggressors – whether state-actors or terrorist networks? Electromagnetic Pulse – where one well-placed detonation can disable our power and electronics? (We've been warned about that by a Congressional Commission and a far-from-fanciful novel, too: William Forstchen's "One Second After.")
Secondly, freedom must be constantly defended. The forces behind the 9/11 attacks abhor freedom, abhor democracy, abhor women's rights, abhor education. It is a force which preys upon fear and ignorance. Our own response – which appropriately checks our vulnerabilities – must never check back our freedom.
Mead Treadwell is Alaska's lieutenant governor. His views are his own.