Ruminating on a recycled paper

So it wasn't an easy week at the Daily News -- as most newspapers have met with the budget-cutting ax lately, 22 newsroom employees were let go or took buyouts last Friday. Over the weekend, as I pounded away at my column ("Gaza coverage skips big picture, tragedy in Sderot") and other business as usual, a colleague noticed that someone cleaning out his or her desk on his or her last day had thrown a pristine copy of the Daily News' Sept. 12, 2001, edition on the throwaway recycling stack. "HORROR!" screamed the headline with a six-column photo of the second trade center tower exploding. I immediately claimed the edition, as I keep historical papers, and I was working at the San Bernardino Sun at the time of the attacks.

But after taking it home, I looked at it closer, and thought about what has happened since the day that was printed. I remember rushing into work hours early, staying hours late, and a colleague telling me that things here on out were never going to be the same. I didn't really believe her, at least in terms of considering a faddish America with a short attention span. Plus, al-Qaida existed before 9-11, as demonstrated in the first WTC bombing and the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania; the bulk of Americans just weren't paying attention. Americans have spent the years since the bombing desperately trying to get back to the insular "norm," accusing pundits or politicians who still stress the need for a "new normal" of spreading "politics of fear," blah blah.

Journalism even changed after 9-11. I knew some up-and-comers who left the industry altogether, either feeling stressed at the "new news" or feeling that life was too short to be newsie paupers. I considered running off and joining the CIA (yeah, they'd be stunned by my random knowledge of Turkish) but am immensely fortunate to nowadays be a journalist who gets an op-ed voice through these times. I just wish people wouldn't be so afraid to remember what happened back in 2001, and quit throwing the "politics of fear" label at those who realize we're still very much in the cross-hairs.

I just wish every voter this year could stumble upon a discarded 9-11 issue in the recycle rack. It sure jolts one's memory.