Talk Story
Good news is
beginning to filter
through the bad
GOOD news is starting to emerge shyly from the ruins of the Sept. 11 disaster. As President George W. Bush said this week, "We have learned that out of evil can come great good." One good has been an estimated $1 billion in donations to support the families of the victims and related causes.Individuals have stepped up grandly, too. For example, this week, CNN founder, billionaire Ted Turner's United Nations Foundation gave $35 million in new grants including $1 million for health care to Afghan refugee women. Turner has already given $365 million to the foundation so far and has pledged $1 billion over 10 years (starting in 1998).
According to Turner, the silver lining in the terrorist attacks is increased awareness of the threats that biological and chemical weapons pose and heightened respect for institutions such as the United Nations in fighting those threats. He's committed another $500 million to a initiative headed by Sen. Sam Nunn to reduce the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical attacks.
Heartwarming stories have arrived, too, from Gander, Newfoundland, of all places. When all commercial aircraft were grounded on Sept. 11, the town of Gander, population 10,000, suddenly became host to more than 6,500 passengers and crew from 30 airplanes forced to land there.
For three days, Ganderites graciously took responsibility for feeding, housing and even entertaining this crowd, putting them up in schools and churches or just taking them home. The passengers, flight crews and Newfoundlanders bonded during this unplanned adventure, so much so that they've started numerous Web sites to memorialize it, share stories and stay in touch with their benefactors back in Gander.
The town Web site, www.gandercanada.com, has links to a variety of stranded-passenger accounts, photos and comments. As one Web-site visitor wrote, "I read about the kindness of the people of Gander and the surrounding area. I am proud to be on the planet with you!"
Next month, Hawaii plans a similar outpouring of aloha by bringing New York City rescue workers here for free vacations.
Locally, one piece of good news, not related to the terrorist attacks but wonderful all the same, was the successful recovery of all but one of the victims of the Ehime Maru-USS Greenville collision.
As an example of a nation doing the right thing despite the cost, commitment and hard work involved, it has few precedents. The affair remains a terrible waste of lives, which no effort can replace. However, how the recovery operation was handled reflects well on the U.S. Navy and our country.
Perhaps the best recent news is that America is starting to have a sense of humor again. Listening to one of those daily Department of Defense press briefings the other morning, I heard the press corps chuckling over a wise crack from Donald Rumsfeld and was suddenly touched by the fact that even these people have started to not take things so overwhelmingly seriously.
When times test us, laughter is the best medicine -- not Cipro. So, it's good that after an appropriate period of mourning and self-restraint America's wags are joining the ranks of the Homeland Defense.
For example, after Sen. Phil Graham characterized an attempt by the American Trial Lawyers Association to get around congressional efforts to limit legal fees from Sept. 11 lawsuits as "piracy on a hospital ship," a Wall Street Journal editorial writer cracked that Graham's statement "may be unfair to pirates."
Professional funnymen are back in gear, too. Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, wrote: "I'm already donating money to patriotic causes, and I bought some plastic flags made in China, but I felt I needed to do more.
"Then it hit me. There is one patriotic duty for which I have prepared my entire life: dehumanizing the enemy. In a sense, that's been my full-time job for years. I just need to replace the word 'management' with 'Taliban.'"
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.
