The Subtle Changes Since 9/11

Seeing the World Differently

Among them were people who had heard fighter jets overhead Sept. 11, who had gotten stuck in the exodus from the District. Mindy Parsons was not one of them, however. She was far away that day, living in Michigan, and watched the whole thing on TV in a hospital, where her daughter was having surgery.

She and her husband, an engineer for Exxon Mobil, flew their U.S. flag in the days after, but the whole awful thing felt distant even as it was happening, she said, and it feels more distant now. When her husband was transferred to the corporate offices in Fairfax, she had no second thoughts about moving to the Washington area.

"I think the chances of another attack are slim," said Parsons, who is originally from Indiana. "It's more the mechanical failure I fear when I'm flying."

She says all the things that people tend to say about Sept. 11: that it will "go down in history," that it was a "wake-up call."

Yet when she really thinks about it, Parsons said, Sept. 11 probably did not change things much at all. People have always hated the United States, she figures, so that's nothing new. And there has always been some type of conflict in the world.

Five years later, she decided, what has really changed is us.

"In recent years, it seems like the U.S. has said, 'Our way or the highway,' and that's not necessarily a good thing," she said. "A lot of people hate our country. Understandably."

It is the sort of statement that was unthinkable for many people in the hyper-patriotic days just after Sept. 11 but that has become a common, if uncomfortable, realization.

Carol Himes, who lives a few doors down, said the past five years have led her and her husband to reconsider their notions of U.S. influence in the world. Although they believed strongly in President Bush's idea of promoting democracy abroad as a deterrent to terrorism, the couple, who consider themselves moderate Republicans, have adopted what Carol calls a "more cynical" view.

"I just feel like at some point, maybe someone would just reflect on the fact that these people don't want our help," she said, referring to Iraq specifically and the Middle East more generally. "Maybe they look at life differently. And maybe what we're hoping to do is just not feasible. This just might be one thing the U.S. can't accomplish."

On a more personal level, though, Himes finds herself better off five years later, if only because Sept. 11 forced her and her husband to reassess their priorities. In the aftermath, they decided to move to Piedmont to be farther from the District, and Carol decided to quit her job managing a health club to be home with their two children until they were both school age, which happened this year.

"It was kind of a reality check for us, especially being a generation of working people and career-oriented people into making money," she said. "We realized that is not as important to us as we had initially thought."