My Prep Story Part 2 – September 11th and its residual effects

I know September 11^th was a life-changing event for many people. Many died. Many others lost loved ones, performed acts of heroism or later went to war. Nothing so monumental happened to me directly. Nevertheless, the events of that day had a profound impact on my thinking over the subsequent months and years.

The most obvious impact was a significant shift in my thinking about starting a family. Ever since I’d finished college, my primary focus had been my career. I’d worked for several years toward a graduate program in Economics with the purpose of becoming an academic or consultant or both. My wife and I had married in 1998, but we agreed to wait to have children until we were both settled into our careers. In September of 2001, I entered the PhD program in Economics at UC Davis. But given what I’d seen on September 11^th, the prospect of spending another five to seven years in graduate school and the likelihood that I’d have to then move to some faraway city to pursue the life of an Economist just didn’t match with my vision for myself and my family.

It was significant that I was also struggling with the academics at Davis and I recognize that as a factor in my decision to leave the PhD program in the summer of 2002. But I still consider the stark blow to our illusion of safety and continuity to be the key factor. It was clear to me that even in this country, any one of us could be killed suddenly, violently and with no way to escape. Now, I know as well as anyone that that’s always been true. People die every day in various accidents. But September 11^th brought that death directly to my television. It made death real and current in a way that a hundred awful car accidents couldn’t. So it wasn’t long before my wife and I were planning to have our first child, and after that our second.

As for how to prepare given the threats of the September 11^th plotters? My take has always been that the next big attack, if there was to be one, would be something different, something unexpected. That was what made September 11^th so devastatingly effective. We couldn’t conceive of it. Oh, we’d heard of hijacking before, but who had ever thought to use the hijacked plane as a weapon to kill people who weren’t even on the plane? My personal experience was that I needed to see it to even understand what had happened (our introduction to the event was on the radio). Once used, the technique of hijacked-plane-as-missile-strike is no longer inconceivable and once it is conceivable, it is easily preventable. I have always thought that al Qaeda would come to the same conclusion and switch the plan for their next attack to something else. I think that’s been borne out by the evidence from their subsequent attacks.

So what was there to do to prepare? Nothing for an individual like me or a family like mine. Just stay away from major cities and landmarks wherever possible since those seemed the most likely targets. Without really planning anything, that’s all I’ve done preparedness-wise regarding September 11^th. But I now have two small children to support and protect and a legacy to provide. I’m still figuring out how to do all of that, but I am happy to have my two little ones and I don’t mind that it was a horrible event that got me kicked into gear to bring them into the world.