By Somdatta Sengupta
It was a Tuesday morning in New Jersey when my mom called me from India. She had just witnessed the second plane crash into the Twin Towers on BBC World News and was frantic to know where I was.
I was not yet up, having been on a night shift covering news the night before. I had to report at my desk at 11 a.m. and it was hardly past 9 a.m. when mom called seven years ago.
Living through the memory of the rest of that day still amazes me. Sirens, emergency alerts over radio and TV clips form an amazing kaleidoscope of confusion and alarm.
Within minutes I was down at the Jersey Shore, fighting crowds of people scurrying to watch a sky of black fumes rising across the stretch of water that separates the Jersey Shore from Manhattan. The otherwise clear view of the Verrazano Bridge and the island of New York City beyond, was a grey blur. It was like watching a science fiction movie where the world as we know it ends. Only this was happening in real time, seven years ago.
Today as another September 11 dawns in India, I closed the chapter on yet another September 11 issue of The Courier, the newspaper I edit in New Jersey. What was different this year?
Apart from the usual sadness that comes from reflecting on the event, it’s the slow realization of what has changed in America, for Americans and for the rest of the world connected to this country.
Seven years ago, people in the areas I covered barely knew where Iraq or Afghanistan is. Today every other house in the neighborhood has a son or daughter serving in either country, fighting America’s war on terror.
Before September 11, people in New Jersey were more aware of what’s going on in Wall Street and the latest show on Broadway than what was going on either side of the Atlantic or the Pacific.
The rest of the world was too remote and irrelevant. Gas was still affordable and jobs were secure. It was safe to be in America.
But when terror hit home, distance faded and the reality of globalization dawned. Keeping the country safe wasn’t a job for spies or secret agents anymore. Homeland security became a national issue. Every morning people developed a habit of checking what code of alert it was before they left home. It became automatic, like checking the weather. An age of innocence in the history of this country ended.
Throughout the past few years, as I covered news in the affluent coastal communities of New Jersey, I saw anger melt into frustration. Then it mellowed into sadness and now reflection.
Over the years, I have seen more and more Americans realize and accept their part on a smaller, more fragile planet. They are aware now more than ever before, how the balance of power, the dependence on global resources and the consequences of political decisions taken between nations, impact them and the world around them.
Their immediate geographic reference has been stretched from Canada and Mexico to the Middle East and Russia. Things have changed and I have witnessed Americans, both immigrants and citizens alike, adjust their scope of reference to the changing times.
The new American consciousness is one of shared responsibility for the new world order. The urge to take the lead is an innate American sensibility but today that is tempered with an effort to cooperate with others.
As the rattle and hum of rebuilding continues at Ground Zero the foundation of a new American landmark is being laid in concrete. It will be a permanent reminder of how America has changed.
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