Let’s Roll
When this workbook was first conceptualized and was being written, life in the United States of America was moving along according to the rules of comprehensibility, security, and sameness. There was no hint of the destruction, and death—and the paradigm shift—that would occur on September 11, 2001. Suddenly, life is not the same and never will be the same for thousands of families and the friends of those families; for thousands and thousands of rescue workers, crisis debriefers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMTs, and military personnel; and for the American nation as a whole. The illusion that most Americans had of invulnerability, that “it could never happen here,” is gone. Yet the American spirit is not gone. It may be shaken, but the words of Todd Beamer of Cranbury, New Jersey and United flight 93 have become the motto for many.
The horror of trauma that has been lifelong for many is now more familiar to others than it has ever been. As airplanes fly overhead and we look to the sky to make sure that they truly are flying and not crashing, Vietnam veterans express the sentiment, “Welcome to our world.” As child abuse survivors relate their reactions to the tragedies and hear the stories of the masses, they, too, say “welcome to our world” of terror.
As an American who is also a crisis intervenor, I have listened to the stories of many during the past few weeks—firefighters on the scene and off at the Pentagon; nurses who watched the collapse of the World Trade Center towers from the thirty-third floor of their own office building, unable to help or do anything to prevent the mass casualties. They spoke of their own flight down the thirty-three flights of stairs to the dust and debris that surrounded them. There were the stories of Arab, Muslim, and even Sikh and Hindu families who were afraid to leave their homes because of possible retaliation. Yet, in the midst of these stories are also the stories of persons who want to help. There is the story of one trauma survivor who made a sign that said “Bless Our Fallen Heroes,” covered it with plastic wrap, and took it to the local fire station in the dead of night. There is the story of another survivor who made 200 tricolor bows and handed them out at her church. There is the bank employee who organized a community-wide forum for her church so that others could hear messages about trauma and its impacts and about hope for healing.
It is my hope that this workbook will be helpful to many of those who have been traumatized by the horrors of September 11, 2001. Keeping Todd Beamer’s words in mind as a new motto for healing, “Let’s roll,” and face the future as our ancestors did when they said, “We have not yet begun to fight.”
—Mary Beth Williams, Ph.D., L.C.S.W. September 2001