story64.xml

story64.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-02-19

I was in the area of the U.S. Capitol at the time the towers came down. There was a mass exodus from the Library of Congress buildings of people walking north, many presumably to the Union Station metro. Faces were downcast, people walked quickly and quietly, not in a panic. Police efficiently directed traffic away from the streets leading to the Capitol. One humorous sight: police used large canvas bins on rollers with Library of Congress markings to block East Capitol Street and stop traffic attempting to proceed toward the Capitol. One can imagine a potential terrorist terrified by the Library of Congress bins and turning back because of them.

Rather than to further describe my own experiences of the day, I?m more moved to try to put into writing a reaction that has been with me since the event: I still have not adequately come to grips with, for want of a better phrase, the urge to kill Americans that a number of the terrorists undoubtedly had, and the will to act on that urge. It obviously was not an urge and will that arose in a moment of anger. It became the be-all and end-all of their lives. And it became a force of history to reckon with in a world where nations have developed technologies of mass destruction. As a student of American history, I realize I know relatively little about what might be termed a growing ideology of anti-Americanism.