bigpicture
Peter Bradley
Editorial Director
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Toby Gooley
Managing Editor
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Senior Editor, Special Projects & eContent
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Mark Solomon
Senior Editor
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Susan Lacefield
Associate Managing Editor
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James Cooke
Editor at Large
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Steve Geary
Editor at Large
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George Weimer
Editor at Large
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Erica E. Mac Donald
Assistant Editor
Sean Maloney
Assistant Editor
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Director of Creative Services
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Director of eMedia
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Columnists:
Clifford F. Lynch
Don Jacobson
Shelly Safian
Kenneth B. Ackerman
Art Van Bodegraven
Barry Brandman
Ten years later, the ripples continue
Gary Master
Publisher
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Mitch Mac Donald
Group Editorial Director
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Jim Indelicato
Group Publisher
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AS I WRITE THIS, THE NATION IS FOCUSED ON COMMEMORATING
the 10th anniversary of the horrible events of Sept. 11, 2001. A decade later,
we still feel the aftershocks of the terrorist attacks in so many ways.
One of my avocations outside of managing DC VELOCITY is working with
an amateur theater group. On the weekend of the anniversary, I had the
privilege of acting in a play written shortly after the events, “The Guys” by
In an earlier monologue, and more to the point here,
she muses about how the effects of the attacks spread
like ripples from a pebble dropped in water. The most
important of those, of course, were the human costs.
But the consequences have also been huge for the
particular part of the world we write about in this
magazine. We have seen enormous change in operations, regulation, and, in particular, security measures
directly stemming from the attacks. That the terrorists
used aircraft—part of our vast transportation infrastructure—has meant many of the counterterrorism
efforts have focused on transportation and logistics.
The Transportation Security Administration, C-TPAT, transportation
worker identification rules, import cargo screening measures, and food
tracing and tracking initiatives … all stem from the 9/11 attacks.
And it is certain that terrorists still see aircraft, ships, trains, and trucks
as either targets or weapons. It was less than a year ago that authorities
intercepted explosives in cargo shipments from Yemen on planes operated
by UPS and FedEx.
The financial cost of the security regimens has been enormous for both
taxpayers and the private sector, and much of that spending and practice is
questionable. The costs have extended, too, to deep intrusions on civil lib-erties that a decade and a month ago might have been seen as unacceptable.
The hard question—one that I doubt we can answer in a toxic political
environment—is how we can balance appropriate security measures and
spending while preserving economic good sense, civil rights, and individual human dignity. “We’ve lost a lot,” Joan says in “The Guys.” We need
leaders with the courage to insist that we don’t add to the loss ourselves.
