When terrorists attacked New York and Washington on September 11, people flocked to the Internet to express themselves.
On chat boards, in articles, and by e-mail, authors’ emotions ran from sympathy and sorrow for the victims to outrage and anger at the attackers.
Strong words urging revenge were common.
“We will demand nothing less than a full and deadly response,” wrote one columnist from the Philadelphia News Daily. The column, which went on to argue that the attackers must be “hunted down … with murder in our eyes”, ended up on chat boards and drew hundreds of sympathetic responses.
But now that the initial horror of the attacks has settled in, the rhetoric on the Internet has become less inflammatory.
Rising above the fray over the initial days is a growing number of voices expressing concern over the proper tact to take in redressing the attacks, as well as more introspective, personal reflections on what lessons we can take away from the tragedies the world has lived through this past fall.
American Tamim Ansary, who grew up in Afghanistan, used the medium of e-mail to add shades of grey to a conflict which many revenge-seekers were seeing as black and white.
Ansary’s electronic missive, initially addressed to some friends, sought to shed light on the reality of life in Afghanistan, the country which suddenly finds itself helpless in a war between the United States and a network of terrorists.
“When you think Taliban,” Ansary wrote, “think Nazis. When you think bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think of the people of Afghanistan, think the Jews in the concentration camps. They were the first victims of the perpetrators,” Ansary added.
The letter went on to suggest, in a dispassionate tone, that a wholesale attack on Afghanistan would be of questionable value.
“Make the Afghans suffer? They’re already suffering,” Ansary said. “Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. In today’s Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat; only they have the means to move around.”
Ansary’s note struck such a chord among its initial readers that within days it was forwarded to friends and acquaintances, who in turn forwarded it to more friends and acquaintances.
In typical Internet fashion, the letter soon reached the status of a “chain letter,” albeit one of a serious tone. Eventually, people around the world were receiving the letter multiple times.
One of those people was U.S. television journalist Bill Moyers, who said he had received the letter by e-mail “no fewer than 25 times” from different sources in one day.
Moyers went on to interview Ansary on an evening talk show Monday, aired around the United States by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The letter was also published by several online news magazines, including salon.com on how the terrorist attacks are forcing her to ask herself questions that were too easily put off by the numbness that sets in when one is caught up in daily routines.
“If any of us were to die, suddenly, violently, unexpectedly, what would we wish we’d done? Invested in more blue chip (stocks)? Splurged on the bigger house, the nicer car?” she says.
“Maybe we would wish that we had enriched our lives by simply choosing, as often as possible, to pay attention to the fact that we’re living it.”
Similarly, columnist Mary Rowland used the vehicle of the Internet to send out her own reminder to herself – and others – that we have much to learn from the feelings of rage and regret that this catastrophe has caused.
Rowland, who was near the World Trade Center when it was hit, points out that the feelings she is now having after seeing the tragedy go beyond hate.
“If you’d been near the World Trade Center that Tuesday and lucky enough to survive, you’d look at things differently,” she says.
“In the end, you want to be able to say, -I gave (life) my best shot.”
When you realize that life can end at any second, Rowland stresses, our goal of living the life we imagined takes on new importance.
“If you’re like most people, you’re offering yourself one excuse after another not to go after that job you want or take the sculpture class or move to (another city).”
“Think about those conveyor belts that carry you through the airport when you don’t want to walk,” she adds. “Too many of us are permanent riders.”
There’s no doubt that the voices of anger and revenge persist on the Internet, as they do in the nonvirtual world.
But slowly, and in growing numbers, the terrorist attacks are motivating those who post their thoughts on the Internet to look deeper at what, in the end, really matters.
Or as Mary Rowland says, leading by example, the best that each of us can do in this volatile period is to “put the anger away and use your energy and substance where it will do you some good.”
