Taking terrorism seriously

Via Wolcott, I learn that Lance Mannion reminds us that the Americans who have the most reason to fear terrorism are the least driven by fear.

The driver of our bus turned out to have a second job as a paramedic. He's either attached to FDNY or works regularly with the firefighters. I was eavesdropping on his conversation with another dad and didn't quite catch it. At any rate, his training and certification were done through FDNY and on 9/11 he was at the World Trade Center in Tower No. 2, escaping in the nick of time.

He spent the next four days on the site, digging through the rubble He went without sleep and lost track of time and says that on the Friday after he asked another medic what time it was and was shocked to learn it was so late in the day. The thing was, he thought it was late in the day Wednesday.

Here he is, four years later, driving a bus full of kids to to the museum he loves best in the City, having a grand time, pointing out the sights, and joking with this other dad who happens to be a firefighter himself.

Now for all I know this guy wakes up screaming in the night. Possibly he's a liar. Human nature being what it is, there are probably more people who say they were downtown that day than actually live in Manhattan. And I can't forget all the Vietnam Vets who aren't really.

But I believed our driver.

Also, it's a good bet that the guy voted for Bush, that he is a hawk on the war in Iraq, (or was. There are, thankfully, fewer and fewer of those every day), and when he's alone with his buddies he's as angry and vengeful as you might expect anybody who'd gone through what he went through to be.

But it's also a good bet that he's not.

Kerry won New York handily.

He has more to say that's worth reading.