What a difference four years can make. After terrorists attacked two American cities on Sept. 11, 2001, the nation immediately came together with a rare sense of shared purpose.
But now, after a hurricane has leveled much of the Gulf Coast, with what may be a greater loss of life than Sept. 11, the mood is much different. It’s bitter and suspicious, particularly toward government.
That’s just the opposite of what happened in 2001. People began looking to government to protect them. Not this time. Government at all levels is justifiably criticized for not being prepared and not reacting quickly enough to Hurricane Katrina.
The finger-pointing and congressional investigations are upon us much faster. Maybe it’s that the terrorists were an identifiable enemy, with a twisted purpose for what they did. You can’t unite against a hurricane, or hold it accountable for the destruction it brings.
A year after Sept. 11, people still were expressing faith that government would “do the right thing,” as the question was put in a Washington Post-ABC Poll.
That opinion survey, taken during the last week of September 2002, showed 64 percent of the respondents expressing confidence in the federal government. That was the highest level in 35 years, according to University of Michigan study that tracks public attitudes toward government.
Even Congress and the news media enjoyed increased approval. For institutions accustomed to being held in the lowest esteem, this was a welcome trend.
Obviously, it didn’t last.
After a widely supported counterattack on terrorists in Afghanistan expanded into a more questionable invasion of Iraq, skepticism returned. As U.S. troops continue to be needed in Iraq, cynicism grows.
The news media squandered their improved image with a flurry of ethical scandals, most of them involving plagiarism or, worse, making stuff up.
The bitter political divisions caused by the election of 2000, with its drawn-out recounts and court challenges, crept back into public life. There are still people in this country who can’t be convinced that the 2004 election wasn’t somehow “stolen,” too.
Congress reverted to its seemingly intractable state of ugly partisanship. It seems like a very long time ago that the members came together on the Capitol steps to sing “God Bless America.”
At the state level, government’s role is being hotly debated in the campaign for and against Colorado Referendums C and D. Opponents say you can’t trust the government to do the right thing, and you certainly can’t trust it to use your tax money wisely. That will only get worse as the Nov. 1 election gets closer.
Some of this is justified. A national administration that boasts of its efforts to protect its citizens from terrorists ought to do better at helping them recover from the terror that nature can cause.
Certainly some of the responsibility for the deadly slow response time lies with local and state officials. Hurricanes happen in that part of the country. Levee breaks are more unusual, but the possibility of one causing the other should have been planned for.
Yet despite the early ineptitude, there were outbreaks of courage, compassion and, eventually, competence. As recovery efforts continued, the process became more orderly.
Aid came from all over the country, and from private groups. In Colorado, state employees – from the governor down to department and division heads and much-maligned everyday bureaucrats – worked over the Labor Day weekend to prepare accommodations for evacuees.
Television provided, as it usually does, emotional and compelling coverage. Private weblogs offered a new and highly personal way of looking at the disaster.
Reporters dropped their objectivity. They got angry on the air. They rescued people from flooded cars. They helped medical workers feed patients.
There’s a fine line here. It’s nobler to do it quietly than to do it on air. But all of what happened is part of this huge and historic story, including the media’s anger and compassion.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.
