Sept. 11 to be 21st century?s 'date of infamy?

Because of the tyranny of an early deadline, I usually steer clear of time-sensitive topics, ones easily made obsolete by changing events. Not this time. America's 20th century "date that will live in infamy" was Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, setting off World War II.

The 21st century's date of infamy will be Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists at-tacked the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pen-tagon in Washington, D.C.

I customarily know what the Rusty Saber topic will be by Tuesday. As the events of the terrorist attacks unfolded on that fateful Tuesday, I could not elicit much interest in the topic already selected. Truth be told, any topic other than the scenes of horror on the television screen seemed inane.

By ignoring the deadline, more than a week will pass between this writing and when it is read. Much more will be known then as the flurry of events continues; however, the impact on my psyche will not change.

The valid comparisons to Pearl Harbor have been made by many observers. Although Hawaii was a territory in 1941, not yet a state, the Japanese without warning attacked the American fleet of warships on American territory.

The black-and-white movie footage of that attack demonstrates devastation nearly as unbelievable as the unspeakable image of an airliner filled with passengers deliberately crashing into the World Trade Center.

I remember the Pearl Harbor attack. Although too young to take note of specific details, I comprehended the severity of the situation because of the shock I saw on faces of adults listening to radio reports a nearly identical shock as appeared on my face 60 years later.

Back then I didn't understand the meaning of an act of war, but it was something more serious than anything I had ever encountered. The nature of this attack also is something I have never encountered. The critical difference between Pearl Har-bor and the present attacks is that Japanese military pilots flying military aircraft attacked U.S. military ships and airplanes. American fighting men were the casualties.

Today's terrorists were faceless civilians who crashed airliners loaded with innocent civilians into the World Trade Center, killing an as yet un-known number of other innocent civilians. The Pentagon casualties were a mixture of civilian and military personnel.

The nation of Japan made no effort to hide its identity in that attack. At this writing, we are still unsure of exactly who the attackers were. So much has been said and will be said about this unspeakable evil.

My thoughts revolve around initial emotional reactions to the images of horrors on the TV screen. Truly this was an equal-opportunity manmade disaster: No distinctions were made between gender, race, religion or national origin.

Among the total number of casualties, probably in the thousands, will be Americans of every background. For this one brief moment "American" is the only designation needed, with no hyphens. There are no Italian-Americans, no African-Americans, no Arab-Ameri-cans, only Americans.

If somehow this unspeakable tragedy shows us that we are all in this life together, that there is no longer a need for "hyphenated" Americans, those cowardly terrorists will have done us a favor that they never intended.

Another conceivable unintended consequence: More real patriotism is flowing among Americans than I have seen since World War II. Suddenly, patriotism and showing the flag is cool. If the terrorists hoped to intimidate us, they may have done just the opposite.

As the Japanese learned in World War II, the terrorists may also learn that it isn't wise to get Americans all riled up. Other strong images abiding with me are of American heroes from all walks of life standing in long lines to give blood, and countless volunteers stepping forward at the scenes of destruction to do what they could.

The sight will be with me forever of firefighters and police rushing into the a World Trade Center tower on rescue missions while survivors were rushing out to safety. As we all know, perhaps more than 200 firemen and policemen were killed when the tower collapsed. Heroes indeed.

I don't understand hate of any sort, especially the kind that led to these unspeakable atrocities. The nation must respond; that is to be expected. I only hope we do so seeking justice, not with hate in our hearts.

(Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.)