Long, unlike most Americans, I am happy to say, fails to grasp the concept that when a group of people hijack four airlines and crash them into major U.S. landmarks, they have lost the privilege of reasoning through their grievances, and deserve not our empathy, but our wrath. The Twin Towers, above all else, stood as a symbol of rationality and human achievement, and it is this rationality that the suicide bombers of Sept. 11 sought to destroy.

The idea of Long, and others like her, sitting up at night and wondering “what could go so wrong in a person’s life that he or she would be compelled to destroy thousands of innocent lives” should not be understood as kindness or sympathy on the part of peaceful individuals, but the deepest and most horrible sanction that any victim can give an attacker. What Long calls the “narrowness” of retaliation is actually a commendable refusal on the part of most Americans to wait for the next air attack or suicide bomber to bring an end to even more lives.

Shannon F. Ringvelski ’04

Sept. 18, 2001

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