September 11th- six years on

Amidst all the petty annoyances of the day, the drizzle, the slow driver in front of us, the stubbed toe, the paper cut, the spilled coffee, we stop for a moment and remember that today is September 11th.

This community was affected by the events of the day, as several friends and loved ones from this area perished.

In my own small way, I lost acquaintances, brothers of friends, the kids of cops and firemen who lived in my neighborhood, who coached my little league teams, who made presentations at my elementary schools. As someone who grew up in the New York City of the fifties and sixties, the WTC became a landmark after my time. It never fixed itself in my memory, like the Empire State Building, or the Polo Grounds.

My friend Rosie, who teaches school just outside of New York City, remembers that she spent the entire year after 9/11 going to memorial services for the parents of students, the husbands and wives of fellow teachers. Every week, someone would be identified, and there would be a memorial service. Her brother-in-law, late for a meeting, looked up as he entered the World Trade Center and saw the plane hit the building. Since then, his life has been in upheaval. Nothing is really the same. My own brother had a meeting there that day, and typically overslept, catching a later train that was stopped halfway into the City when the buildings collapsed. The sister of one of my wife's closest friends, trying to catch the earliest train from D.C. to New York for a meeting at the Trade Center, realized as she boarded the train that she was wearing two different-colored shoes. She decided to run home, change shoes, and try to get back before the next train left. There wasn't a next train. Her 9AM meeting was canceled by history.

My brother doesn't talk about it at all, neither will Rosie's brother-in-law. That's classically symptomatic of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Milton Friedman is the prize-winning economist who invented the crisis-driven model of trickle down economics. It combined drastic tax cuts with drastic spending cuts (during the Clinton years, the model seemed to work because of bi-partisan efforts to balance the budget, and the "pay-as-you-go" approach; during Reagan and both Bushes, even when Congress was controlled by the party of the President, the model pushed the United States, even as we slide towards one right now, into recession, because corresponding cuts and reconfigurations and efficiencies in government spending were never made; under the Republican President, government spending grew exponentially, and Alaska ended up with $340,000,000 bridges linking islands of 40 people with the mainland, we lost billions of dollars in money designated for reconstruction in Iraq, and the NCLB was never funded at more than 15% of it's budget).

Friedman said that only when a major disaster or crisis occurs and the people are distracted can the political choices needed to make his flimsy and class-driven model happen; shortly after 9/11, you may remember Congress passing astonishing tax cuts, 50% of which went to people making $1,000,000 a year or more. It only works when people are distracted, when they are pitted against one another, when they feel vulnerable, when they fear each other. Imagine creating an economic model that is contingent on people suffering deep emotional and financial trauma so that tax and spending cuts can be rammed through. Then imagine what would happen if only the tax cuts were passed. Nah, you needn't imagine it- we're living with consequences. Tour the schools. Watch the housing market collapse. Literally, watch community infrastructure collapse, like that bridge in Minneapolis.

Funny in a way, because the resulting sleight of hand with the war on terror, and the nearly trillion dollars we have spent on war, has bled the schools dry, and jeopardized the very Constitution that we teach our children in those increasing crowded classrooms.

But today it is September 11th. I assume those of you out there reading this do so because you either want to keep tabs on me, or you are interested in education. If you have a few moments, stop down at Newburyport High School, and visit the video lab named after Thomas Pecorelli, a graduate from NHS who died on 9/11.

Then, if you are really moved, take that tax cut you received from Uncle Miltie and his friends in Washington, or maybe just tithe the anticipated increase in your property tax had the Override passed (you'll probably feel as embarrassed about what it amounts to as I am), and walk it over to Richie Eaton at the Newburyport Five Cents.

I never met Tommy, but if he's anything like his sister Angela, he was a great kid. Angela read two poems about his loss at one of the first Favorite Poems nights Deb Szabo and her Creative Writing Class from the High School sponsor annually at the Firehouse. Brought the house to tears, and she was the one who was grateful for the chance to share. She and Tommy; honest, and kind, and quick to smile.

Anyway, tell Richie you want him to put the money into the Scholarship Fund set up in the name of Thomas Pecorelli, so that even the loss of Thomas, a loving son, uncle and brother, who died five months before his own son was born, will remain for us a symbol of the power of love over fear, and the value a free society places on an education. Richie, who knew Tommy from their work together broadcasting NHS sports, will thank you. And in June, two Newburyport kids you might know will be a little closer to a career in the arts that Tommy never got to finish.

Those are the kind of things a community does.