Sydney siege: innocence lost as Australia catches up to the USSydney siege: innocence lost as Australia catches up to the US
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Sydney siege: innocence lost as Australia catches up to the US



Date


                December 16, 2014




(29)
Comments 101

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Debra A. Klein







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                                The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks changed the US forever. Photo: Reuters


I'm sorry for you, Australia. I was in New York City on September 11, 2001, and my life changed forever. I was paralysed. I didn't want to go anywhere, do anything. But there was an airfare special to Australia, so I went.There I saw something I couldn't imagine: pure innocence. I saw children riding the ferry, slack-jawed at the sight of the underside of the bridge. "Look, Luna Park!" a boy with yellow hair cut in a 1950s fashion said, straining to see more of the clown's frightening face. I asked myself if this could possibly be for real. I saw other children listening to their parents (what a concept!), being respectful, behaving. I arrived at a bus stop up a hillside in Manly where someone had left a stack of coins, as in money, and they just sat there, awaiting their owner's return. No one pocketed them.I met and spoke French with a waiter in a restaurant in Melbourne, and, for no reason, he kissed both cheeks and told me how nice it was to meet me. Another cafe owner, a Greek woman, chatted as though we were good friends. My Australia visit was like entering a time warp. I didn't want to leave.My parents (who'd been) had told me Australia was like America, but 20 years behind, which is the main reason I'd rejected it as a destination for many years. Who wants to see what I already know about, had already lived? I had wanted adventure and danger. Now I had danger at home. I just wanted an escape from the heavy thoughts I had in my head. In Australia, I felt the post-9/11 veil lift, at last.
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I went back every year at Christmas time, and laughed at the corny simplicity of the televised holiday program, Carols in the Domain. It was the style of the variety shows from my childhood, the kind of entertainment that limped to its death in the 1970s on TV when I was growing up, yet was seemingly embraced by this nation, or at least by the hundreds of faces lit up by the glow of wholesome song singing and the promises of Santa. I enjoyed boarding planes without portioning out my liquids, or removing my shoes. I felt normal again.Even as those minor inconveniences eventually crept in, everything else seemed frozen in time and removed and impenetrable. Australia seemed to be safe, always.I walked with the masses to and fro along Sydney Harbour for the New Year's Eve fireworks, rode the ferry past banks filled with people on blankets and on chairs, open to the elements, and to each other, but couldn't suppress that dark thought in my head: what if someone ... ?Now, assuredly others will consider these unpleasantries once left to the safety experts: imagined, or real threats. How will everyone feel this year, when the fireworks go off, now that terror - although, thankfully small dose, not, of course, for the families – has reached Sydney?  How will they sit on blankets unprotected in the night and not think dark thoughts? How can it possibly be the same?The morning of September 11, 2001, I was in New York for lunch with my girlfriends, and an important meeting with the editor-in-chief of Newsweek, where I'd been freelancing. Instead, they got off their train on a platform in Harlem, where they could see the smoke and debris cloud from the buildings collapsing downtown. I worked on the story that day, one of hundreds, playing a tiny reporting role in coverage that eventually won the magazine important prizes, but for me that ambition, that single-minded pursuit of career disappeared. I started living a simpler, less materialistic life, seeing how quickly it could all go away.I felt, when the planes went into the buildings, that life, all life, all of our lives would never be the same.Attempting what seemed like a complex bus ride to a sale in a building in Balmain, with a stop in a recommended bakery, of all places, that first visit, I asked a passenger for directions. The middle-aged woman heard my accent and her eyes teared up. "We're so sorry for what happened," she said. That's when I felt the enormity of September 11 and felt it had happened to all of us, that everyone felt it the same way.Australia, I speak for myself, not a nation, but I speak to your nation in telling you this: we're all so sorry for what happened. Life goes on, but there is no taking back what has left now. My parents, as usual were right. Australia was just like America in some ways, but maybe 20 years behind. I'm sorry it rings true this holiday season, for you. I'm sorry that this Christmas it was your turn, and that you've lost your innocence.Debra Klein is a US journalist, currently a Daily Beast contributor, who was in New York on September 11, 2001, and was part of Newsweek's award winning coverage that day.















101 comments so far


Debra, I hardly know where to begin! This is entirely not a "9/11 moment!" This was an individual nutter, not a bunch of organised and trained terrorists. Two people have tragically died, not thousands (altho 2 is two too many).  If we let this change our lives, then the terrorists win - if we lean in the direction of @illridewithyou then we may have a chance. If all Muslims are like this nutter, then are all Christians like the IRA? Don't pander to the idiocy of fear.

Commenter
pippid
Date and time
Mon Dec 15 23:59:53 UTC 2014



I agree with all the replies that say "this was not our Twin Towers". But this was a kind and generous letter full of love for Australia. People should not be quick to mock it.

Commenter
isteve
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 04:55:52 UTC 2014


Why has SMH published this? It may be a kind and generous letter but is not helpful and it is possibly dangerous. This article just adds hysteria to an incident that has more to do with mental health issuesthan anything else.

Commenter
Steve
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 21:51:00 UTC 2014


very very disappointed that the SMH has published this article. I thought Fairfax would have been more sensible than this. What is the difference this idiot and the idiots who killed all those people at Port Arthur and Hoddle Street all those years ago. The only difference I can see is that he held up a Flag and wore a headband.

Commenter
mitch
Location
melb
Date and time
Wed Dec 17 01:09:33 UTC 2014


how on earth can you compare the Lindt cafe incident to 9/11?for goodness sake!

Commenter
Nick
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 00:25:01 UTC 2014



To succumb to hysterical melodrama is not the Australian way and thank god for that.  No this is NOT an Australian 9/11 moment and hopefully we will never have one; but I’m sorry to say certain of our control obsessed politicians and yellow journalists are likely disappointed we are not more susceptible to fear mongering.

Commenter
Adam
Location
Perth
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 05:28:53 UTC 2014


This was not an orchestrated attack on our country - it was a madman. We must keep it in perspective.

Commenter
Binks
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 00:25:24 UTC 2014



Oh puleeaase, lets not overblow the whole thing. Port Arthur was actually a lot worse. I'm strenuously hoping that this isolated incident by a seemingly deranged and now deceased individual will not change Australia or Sydney for the worse. I disagree that Sydney has ever been innocent!And lets not forget that this sort of terror that results in death goes on in families every week.

Commenter
youtoepeeah
Location
don't take it away
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 00:25:27 UTC 2014



I agree youtopeeah.There was the Hilton Hotel bombing and the Bali Bombing. Both serious. This was NOT like the London Bombing, or the Trade Tower attacks nor like the Bali bombing.Let's just focus on the fact that 99.99+% of all the people in the country just want to get on being friendly.

Commenter
PatrickEB
Location
Sydney
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 06:22:38 UTC 2014


What a load of drivel. Australia's 9/11 moment.   A criminal, a lunatic, committed a crime. It doesn't define this nation,nor does it cause a loss of innocence.   We've already had Port Arthur and moved on from that.  We'll move on from this without losing our values and the things that makes this country great.   Take a look at the "I'll ride with you" trend for something that REALLY defines Australia.

Commenter
Mike 
Location
Sydney
Date and time
Tue Dec 16 00:26:09 UTC 2014




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