Erin and I travelled extensively

Sep 14, 2001

Erin and I travelled extensively over the last three years, circling the globe and touching four continents. In the U.S., too, we travelled around, flying to visit friends in Denver and family in Chicago. Each time, I carried a backpack filled with magazines and books and a sweater and granola bars and travel documents. I always carried my Swiss Army knife, as well, and each time I walked through the security checkpoints in an American airport, the guards asked about my knife, checking to see that it wasn’t more than four inches long. I admit that I was annoyed, because I just couldn’t fathom that such a useful tool could be weapon. Today, when I hold my knife with 20 different tools in its leather case, it feels different, flawed, dangerous, and I’m angry at the cowardly, evil terrorists who took the tools of our modern society—the knife, the airplane—and destroyed other tools—the elevator, the skyscraper, the government office building. Evil destroyed this week, but I’m determined to find the tools to build, rebuild and repair. That’s our society’s challenge, too, as we search for ways to exact vengeance and justice. Our military might is to be unsheathed, and rightly so, but whatever actions we take to best this evil and root out terrorists, we mustn’t destroy other innocent people and their peacable livelihoods. Otherwise, we’ll just be another tool of terrorism.

Anton Zuiker ☄