By Lucy Mohl
The great equalizer event brought out the best in Americans and Canadians (mostly) throughout the night. It's should be easy to understand the pull to take care of the other guy: if we're all in a bad spot -- like a blackout -- together, then we're all sharing the same difficulties. Even the law of the jungle says strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
But behavior is unpredictable in crises. The New York Times (registration require) remembers the "good" blackout of 1965 (the one where the birth rate shot up nine months later), and the "bad" blackout of 1977, where arson and looting were the order of the night.
In office conversation around The Seattle Times, our feeling was that September 11th sticks in the back of the collective mind, and the images of all those people walking home recalled a nightmare not yet two years old. The city knew what it was to be shell-shocked (registration require), uncertain and afraid, and instinctively took care of itself.
It's unlikely that many people in New York or other parts of the East and Midwest were thinking too much about Iraq as they straggled home, for once able to see the stars at night. But, that's not to say the Iraqis didn't react when they heard the news.
Back to top