Posted on 08/22/2003 11:28:58 AM PDT by Bob J
"Let There Be Light "
by Jonathan David Morris
I was in an office when it happened -- when the lights flickered and the Net went down. And just like that, about a quarter past four, it felt like 9/11 all over.
Folks asked, "What's happening?" But they wondered, "Are we under attack?" And we were under attack, all right, but not like before. Our enemy's name this time was called power. Energy. Electric light.
New York and Detroit and Cleveland and Buffalo. Toronto. Ottawa. Anytown, USA. Who on the Northeast wasn't affected by last Thursday's blackouts?
Well, Philadelphia, for one, I hear had it fine.
It wasn't long before you sat down to watch TV -- if you lived, like me, in a mostly unaffected part of New Jersey -- and you saw scenes of grown men and women, and children, and tourists, all crowding 'round Manhattan's major exits -- its bridges and ports. It looked like Times Square everywhere, as if New Year's Eve had come to New York just a bit early this year.
You thought about those on the subways, too -- those trapped below ground with no light and no air and no idea what was going on. You allowed yourself to imagine someone dear to you was down there, someone maybe like your mom. You hoped rescue crews would make their way underground quickly to quell such people's fears.
And yet you couldn't help but laugh.
You just couldn't help it. Not that any of this was funny, of course. It wasn't. But in a strange sense it was.
This could've been something bigger than any of us were prepared for -- you keep saying this to yourself. But then you see the composure with which America handled this crisis, and you start to realize it wasn't a crisis and that maybe -- just maybe -- we were prepared for it after all.
Why, this could've been the sequel to September 11th -- and, on August 14th, it would've happened just shy of the first attack's second birthday. There was really no reason to believe that's not what this was. With all the talk last week of al-Qaeda captures and surface-to-air missile plots, people would've been right to lose their minds when they lost their lights. Yet they didn't.
For as long as some may have operated under the impression that we'd been hit, tensions never took hold. There was nothing but courage -- not Hollywood guts, but actual gusto -- under this proverbial fire.
Looting? Not in New York, at least. The number of break-ins rivaled your ordinary, electric-powered night. Indeed, folks in the Big Apple were too busy directing traffic, giving rides to total strangers, and camping out together beneath a summer sky.
Respect. Once again, one can't help but respect the spirit of the American people.
As roughly a dozen sizable cities succumbed to mechanical error last Thursday, millions lost air conditioning but failed to lose their cool. The only thing certain, at least for a while there, was the uncertainty which gripped a large part of the landmass we call home. There was no need to run for one's life, no need to cry, or pray, or make final phone calls -- but considering the circumstances, it would've been all right if these things had come to pass.
But they didn't, by and large.
As before, Americans showed poise in the face of an unknown adversity -- which, it turned out, was more of an inconvenience than anything else. Our ancestors once lived without power, didn't they? Then so, too, could we for at least one night.
And so, in spite of the hardships suffered by those who were stranded in big cities Thursday, and with all due respect for their fears, you couldn't help but laugh a little when the news came through. It was a nervous laugh, really, but elation all the same -- for this would appear to have been no terrorist act, yet Americans walked proud in case it was.
There was no need to panic this time around. You could go to sleep safe in knowing that your loved ones were coming home.
It would just take them longer than usual.
© 2003 Jonathan David Morris All rights reserved.
Carolyn
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