JOSEPH N. BELL -- The Bell Curve

Monday evening, I was halfway through what I hoped would be a funny

column about the domestic problems caused by the confluence of the

baseball and football seasons. Now, on Tuesday morning, I’m wondering how

long it will be before I can write funny again.

My mind is numbed by six hours of watching the devastation in New York

and Washington, D.C. -- and wondering where else it may happen. And it is

impossible to put from my head the memory of another morning, long before

television, when I huddled around a radio with my college friends and

listened to descriptions of the carnage at Pearl Harbor. On both of those

mornings the United States was attacked. But there the similarity stops.

In 1941, we knew the identity of the enemy. We knew where he was and

how we had to respond. And we marshaled the heart and soul and sinew of a

nation to do that. And did.

Now, the enemy is amorphous. If we can give him a name, it would be

hatred. Hatred of such magnitude that it would murder thousands of

innocent men, women and children, not only without compunction but with

satisfaction. Hatred so consuming that the perpetrators willingly give up

their own lives to take the lives of those they hate.

Our first reaction -- once we’re past the bewilderment that human

beings can do this to one another -- has to be rage. And from that place,

the people who attacked us today can compound the damage they have

already done. If we act impulsively, out of rage and with insufficient

evidence, they will have won again. Our response must be both strong and

credible.

And as we shape that response, we must not forget that the first enemy

is hatred, wherever it is found. One of the most deadly previous acts of

terrorism in our history grew out of the hatred of an American for his

own government. Similar hatred -- against people of other races, color,

religion and lifestyle -- has become a reckless commodity inside as well

as outside our country. It breeds its own brand of destruction, and we

must not allow it to influence our response.

Things will not be the same in this country after today. An open

society will become less open. People who considered themselves

invulnerable will no longer enjoy that feeling. For a while, at least,

every time we board a commercial aircraft, we’ll be remembering what

happened on this day.

If there is an upside, it would have to be that such an attack leads

us directly to our greatest strength: unity against a common enemy. We’ve

proved before what this can accomplish. We will prove it again.

And there’s another upside: that the terrorists who planned this

attack may have finally overstepped. That all the nations of the world

may now be ready to put aside differences to isolate these terrorists and

deal with them.

If they don’t, we will. We’ve paid far too enormous a price today to

do anything less.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.