November 28, 2010 6:36 AM

Floating blissfully down the River Denial

On the morning after authorities thwarted a bomb plot here, a handful of visitors wandered through Pioneer Courthouse Square. Some had heard about the plot and others hadn’t. Some were surprised it could happen here.

Yeah, it’s trite…and it’s silly…but it really is true. Denial really is more than a river in Egypt. The morning after a wannabe jihadist was arrested for trying to set off a bomb at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square, the general reaction is not at all what I’d been expecting. What do I mean? Well, try this headline on for size:

Visitors to Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square surprised that bomb plot could happen here.

Uh…WTF? And why couldn’t an attack like the one that was foiled take place in Portland? Do we enjoy some sort of karmic immunity from the hatreds and vendettas whose violent fallout impacts so much of the world? Is Portland just too pretty and laid back to be the target of a terrorist attack? Yeah, Joe and Edna Sixpack might be surprised that a terrorist attack could happen here, but that’s the nature of terrorism- instilling the fear that we could be hit anywhere at any time. Creating that uncertainty and nurturing the accompanying fear is part of the strategy.

Granted, news of the intended attack is still trickling in, and it’s still far too early to draw hard and fast conclusions. The one thing I do know for sure is that this thwarted attack, while certainly not on the scale of 9.11, would have devastated Portland’s sense of innocence and safety. The Rose City may not appear to be the prototypical target for a terrorist attack, but the reality is that it could- and almost did- happen here. In that sense, we’re no different from New York, London, Madrid, Jerusalem, or Oklahoma City. Who knows how close we really came to joining that list of cities which have suffered horrific attacks…but we have no justification for thinking that “this sort of thing” doesn’t, or couldn’t, happen here in Portland. It very nearly did.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 28, 2010 6:36 AM.

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