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Up Front It all changed ten years ago
In this issue of remembrance, we take you back 10 years to the October 2001 of Marine Digest (our former name). That issue was our first chance to follow up on the tragic events of September 11 with a variety of reports that sought to cover the shipping industry's impacts and involvement in the wake of history-making terrorist attacks on the U.S. that continues to impact our lives.
There are not many days in my life I remember more vividly, and with such deep emotion,
than that one, and surely I'm not alone as there are so many stories that will be passed down for generations to come along the lines of those who recall where they were the day JFK was shot.
Following are excerpts from my editorial — Crisis, Remembrance and Reform —
from Vol. 80, No. 2: On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, I was sitting in a ballroom at a hotel in Los Angeles at 5:30 in the morning, stuffing name badges into plastic holders for a Marine Digest conference on U.S.-China shipping and logistics. I had quite a bit of nervous energy that early morning and needed to be doing something
as I mentally prepared for the day at hand. Soon thereafter, one of our staff entered the room and asked me if I'd heard "the news." From that point to the time of this writing, I and the rest of this great, yet bruised country have been trying to wrap our collective minds around the atrocity of that day's terrorist attacks on these United States of America. From getting the news about the safety of loved ones, friends and associates, to watching,
reading and listening to the dark events unfold, it's safe to say our lives and the way we go about them will never be quite the same again. Observing the harbors of the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, it was the strangest
sight — a large number and variety of commercial shipping vessels were laid up at anchor, while the Coast Guard conducted its ship-to-ship security searches. The two ports' miles of container cranes remained inactive on what would have certainly
been a relatively busy day of cargo handling. Driving with my crew back to Seattle from L.A. in my rental car that fateful week (airports
were still closed at that point), we observed a very long line of trucks that stretched up the West Coast like a wagon train, indicative of the temporary lack of air cargo support. Heretofore, the hot spots of port security have been related to smuggling, stowaways,
cargo theft and drug trafficking. Now comes a very sudden paradigm shift in the nation's thinking towards anybody or anything entering our borders. Paranoia towards future terrorist acts is understandably running high and if passenger and cargo aircraft, plus the terminals they call, are going to be clamped down upon, it stands to reason seaports are going to be scrutinized, too. The global economy has become more complex and integrated into American society,
and a "silver bullet" does not exist yet in terms of instantly making the shipping industry, federal government and U.S. public totally happy on this issue. But the rules of the game have changed. Americans, despite their voracious appetites for consumer goods and fuel, are worried
where the next hole is for terrorism to slip through. The port and shipping industry does not want to be this next hole. Nor does the federal government want it to be.
A better solution needs to be sought, and quickly, because pre-Sept. 11 arguments
against additional federal layers of port security are no longer good enough. This is a country that, no matter how out of touch it might be with how the shipping industry works, will increasingly want action on several security fronts. It's time for all sides on this issue to prepare for that.
September 2011 www.cargobusinessnews.com
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peter.hull@cargobusinessnews.com Vancouver, BC FRED McCAGUE
fred.mccague@cargobusinessnews.com Copy Editor TRACY HUDDLESON
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