Passions stirred in letters

Published 12:01 am Sunday, September 11, 2011

Events commemorating the murderous attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 will take place throughout Snohomish County and the nation today. For many, the caustic feelings of shock, anger, fear and bewilderment we all felt then will seem bitterly fresh. It is a time to reflect on the nation we were then, the nati

on we’ve become since, and the nation we still hope to be.

History being such an instructive tool, we consulted our letters archive to recall how readers expressed their feelings in the days after the 9/11 attacks. The thoughts they shared were without exception passionate, and largely congregated around a few central themes: calls for national unity and resolve to defeat an enemy; pleas not to direct anger against innocents; and warnings against the erosion of individual liberties.

Looking back, they reveal a community that was indeed united against this newly prominent enemy, and aware of the dangers that lurked in the battles to come.

Michael Klein of Stanwood argued that America must stand up against radical Islamists for the sake of future generations: “We have a choice to make as a nation. Will we stand up for the principles of freedom and justice, principles our fathers willingly laid down their lives to defend, or will we lose heart and stop short of what needs to be done to remove this threat to our nation, our world and our way of life?”

While that was the prevailing sentiment, some resisted the call for war. Amanda Sterling of Arlington wrote, “America is the most powerful nation in the world — let us show the rest of the world that we are so powerful that we can resist vengeance.”

John Lovick, who at the time was a state representative and now is Snohomish County sheriff, hoped that the tragedy would rekindle a sense of community among Americans: “As the reality of this attack continues to sink in, we must continue to respond with a feeling of shared sacrifice and resist the temptation of blind hatred. Our feelings of anger must not be directed at innocent, hard-working citizens in our country whose skin may be a certain color or whose religion may be different from our own.”

Kerry Watkins of Everett urged that we not “mistreat Arab Americans who peacefully reside here and are equally appalled by this dastardly attack.”

Carl A. Munson of Lynnwood seemed to predict the quandary surrounding prisoners still held at Guantanamo: “It also seems obvious that one of our basic national tenets — of being innocent until proven guilty — will be challenged because of the horror of the attack.”

Though too few heeded her, Janis Hayward of Lake Stevens called for readers to spend more than a “token few days” learning lessons of the heart: “To do so requires us to slow down and cease many of our normal pursuits. Individually, we must consciously choose to go against this cultural flow so the crucial lessons we need to learn can sink in, and affect us, and change us from the inside out. Then, and only then, can real healing take place.”

Poignant words that seem just as relevant 10 years later.