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We Need A Calm, Calculated Response

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

I was in an automobile wreck once, and afterwards I felt that I was in a fog for a while, not upset or in a panic, just calm, and a bit numb.  It wasn’t that I had hit my head or been injured.  I suppose it was just a sense of shock.  That’s something akin to how I feel now about the recent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The horrible loss of human life, the willingness of the terrorists to kill thousands of innocent people, and the dancing in the streets to celebrate are just too much to take in all at once.

I sometimes wish that more people had a similar reaction.  Unfortunately, we now see and hear so many people who are anything but numb.  Instead of taking the time to let the reality of the situation sink in, to gather and consider the evidence and think through a well-planned, rational response, many people react with quick, hot emotions.  Some develop a patriotic fervor.  Others react with hot tempers, wanting to attack and destroy anyone who might ever have lived in the same country as the attackers or wanting to expel "foreigners" from our country and further limit immigration, especially from the Middle East.  We see evidence of a mob-like mentality.  Polls tell us that over half of Americans are ready and eager to give up their liberty and take the lives and liberty of other innocent people in a panicked attempt to obtain some security.  Frankly, it frightens me. 

If there were ever a time when we need to be calm and calculating, rather than hot-headed and emotional, it is now.  If we decide that a military strike is an appropriate response, we will have plenty of time to plan it and carry it out so that we can achieve the desired result.  Certainly, we cannot allow this attack on our country to go unanswered.  Whoever planned and organized this atrocity must pay a price.  But, before we can decide on an appropriate response, we need to gather information, calmly analyze it, and carefully consider our alternatives and their likely consequences.  Lashing out in anger might make us feel better, but it could do serious, permanent harm to many innocent people, both in other countries and here at home. 

Meanwhile, let’s remember who we are.  We are a country that believes in respecting the life, liberty, and property of all people.  We believe in treating all people with respect, no matter their ethnic origin, their religion, or the country in which they live.  We believe in the right of self-defense and the rule of law.  If we allow ourselves to be carried away by our emotions in a hot-tempered pursuit of vengeance, so that we act contrary to these basic principles, then we may do much more harm to ourselves than any terrorist could ever do to us.