October 4, 2001
A Special Newsmakers: Faculty speak out about Sept. 11
BOEING BUST: Well, not exactly, according to Christopher Haugen. Haugen, an analyst with the UW’s Fiscal Policy Center, recently told the Everett Herald that layoffs announced by Boeing following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States won’t lead to the kind of exodus that plagued the local economy in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The layoffs will, however, push the region into tough economic times much like the rest of the state was already facing. “The rest of the state was struggling much more than Puget Sound was,” he told the Herald. The layoffs will contribute to what Haugen calls a likely recession.
ANXIETY ANSWER: If you’re feeling increased anxiety since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United States, you’re in good company. In fact, John Carr, a UW emeritus professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, recently told the Seattle Times that increased anxiety is completely understandable. “We live with stress every day and anxiety is our response to stress, whether it’s stress from traffic, taxes, jobs, family life or relationships. But now there is a source of stress so far out of the ordinary, from a force way beyond our control. These anxious reactions are not atypical, and they’re not abnormal.” he said.
TUNING IN: Since the Sept. 11 attack, sports fans, according to UW’s Geoffrey Boers, are likely to begin paying more attention to the national anthem sung before competition. Boers, a professor of choral music, told the Tacoma News Tribune that The Star-Spangled Banner should be treated with more reverence than often happens. “I’m hoping that this moment in history allows us to realize that patriotism is clearly important, and a great vehicle for the conveyance of that is music.”
VEXING VIEW: In a recent Seattle Post-Intelligencer story about Americans’ misunderstanding of the Middle East, Robert Burrrowes tried to shed some light on the Arab perspective. “Our picture of the Middle East has been filtered through a lens ground by Israel,” said the UW professor of international studies. “The Arab world recognizes that the U.S. is the only country that can put pressure on Israel to reach a settlement.”
MORE INFAMY: The Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United States has drawn many comparisons to the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Randolph Hennes, an affiliate assistant history professor at the UW, told the Everett Herald why. “It’s the only similarly spectacular event to compare it to.” And, it’s a fair comparison, he said. In fact, it’s the kind of event, like Pearl Harbor, that historians will look back to as defining America’s future. “In a year, will it be a turning point in American history? I can’t see how it can’t be,” he said.
FEAR FLUNG: A recent Tacoma News Tribune story focused on people’s fear in the wake of the attacks. “We’re used to bad things happening to other people in other places,” said Alison Sands, counseling supervisor at Harborview Center for Sexual Assault & Traumatic Stress. “This changes our sense of our self in the world and our place in the world when there’s a terrorist attack in our country, even when it’s on another coast.” And in the same article, Ellis Goldberg said that’s exactly the point. “The basic philosophy behind terrorism is to make people afraid – to more or less target society at random.”
GROUNDED: A UW economics professor, like so many other economists around the country, told the Tacoma News Tribune that the airline industry, including Boeing, is in for some tough times. “Who needs new airplanes at a time like this?,” Charles Nelson said. “The military may buy a few, but air travel will be severely reduced for the foreseeable future. I just don’t see (this industry) as a viable private business at this point. It’s going to get very ugly.”
