Reflections on Dec. 7,’ Sept. 11, and Today’s Fragmented Society

          The other day someone on National Public Radio used the term “fractured” to describe the society we live in today. It caught my ear with its pointed truth.

          I’d been thinking about the anniversary of 9/11/2001 and a catastrophe 60 years earlier, Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941. I was reflecting on the similarities and differences between these two horror-filled events and their ensuing years of impact. While the US societies attacked 60 years apart were quite different, there were some basic similarities in the resulting consequences. Both brought unexpected mass destruction and death; both led to war and a major surge in intense patriotism; both were to have an impact that would last many years.

          As I think back to my youth in the years after Pearl Harbor, I remember a simplicity of that time. People didn’t seem to have trouble with easy answers to complex issues. We firmly believed that using ration stamps, saving tin cans, and growing a vegetable garden in our front yard would help win the war. Movies bolstered the country’s confidence by always depicting America as victorious over a diabolical enemy; they assumed that the US was always right and right would always win in the end. The whole country seemed to be bound together with a shared spirit of purpose and vision.

          When Pearl Harbor was bombed, the country was shattered. Since the planes themselves revealed that the enemy was the Japanese government, our president immediately declared war on Japan, and the government developed a “logical” plan to make our country safer. It issued orders that all Japanese-American citizens had to relocate to centers where they could be under continual observation and control by the military and other officials. The suspicion they would betray America for Japan was prevalent. Anyone Asian-looking was suspect because they might be connected with Japan. (One vivid image I have from that time is a photo spread in Life Magazine that illustrated how to distinguish between Japanese and Chinese people. Japanese were the ones to be wary of!)

          Sixty years later, by 9/11/2001, American culture had transformed from a rather homogenous population to one where differences were common; it wasn’t unusual to interact with someone of another color or nationality. Media and other businesses were becoming more focused on the interests and needs of individuals. In the media world, cable tv had grown from small regional entities in the mountains to networks offering hundreds of channels to appeal to countless variety of tastes. The Walkman had launched the personal media boom in 1980 and tv platforms like Facebook and Pinterest were fueling the division of one general audience into millions of audiences.

          Given the change in US culture from one with a kind of communal sense in the ‘40’s to an individuated one 60 years later, one might expect the long term aftermath of the two catastrophes to be very different. Fast-forward to today. Even now, almost 20 years after the 9/11 attack, anyone who even looks Islamic is susceptible to negative treatment because of some people’s fear and attribution of guilt by association. Since 9/11 it seems to be harder for suspicions and fear of the “other” to fade because of the almost continuous tensions and war between the US and many Islamic nations. Exacerbating the situation is the existence of the special prison in Guantanamo and recent US immigration laws and practices.

          What are we to make of all this? One thing is that many of our major problems today have long roots; this means they are not easily solved. There’s no magic wand that will erase distrust of “the other.” Another is that because today’s conflicts are different, so are paths to resolution and peace. Rationing and victory gardens won’t bind a country together when vision and perspectives are miles apart. Still another is that maybe the problems of yesterday were not simple after all, and that the chosen “solutions” weren’t able to heal the roots and the wounds are still with us.

          What to do? Maybe because we are a fractured society, healing has to be approached a fragment or two at a time. Two people or groups listening patiently to each other seems inconsequential when the fracture is so severe. On the other hand, repairing a shattered ceramic vase or cleaning a valuable art masterpiece has to happen one tiny piece at a time.

          When God wanted to heal the wounds of the world and reunite humanity with the divine, there was no earth-shattering grand gesture. Rather one man, his son, came in an unassuming manner to an unassuming part of the world. The planet didn’t come screeching to an end when Jesus gave his life on the cross or even when he rose from the dead. Not many people noticed either event, but the mandate he left us was to do an immense thing in a tiny way: Love one another as I have loved you. May each of us work at world peace, even if it is “just” one fragment at a time.

                               Sr. Colleen Winston, OSB