DAY FIFTY SEVEN:Nov. 6:
It's election day in New York.I am stuck in a hotel in Auburn, Alabama, desperately searching tonight o news of the election, chewing my fingernails.
This morning I was in Washington, D.C., speaking to an assemblage of policymakers and students of international studies at the Johns Hopkins Center about public health and bioterrorism. With me on the stage was Dr. D, A. Henderson, newly appointed bioweapons advisor to HHS Sec. Tommy Thompson. Economist Jefrey Sachs, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative President Dr. Seth Berkley and other key players were there. Washington is learning - perhaps not fast enough - but learning what the phrase "public health infrastructure" means. With time, if terrorism events allow us such a luxury, political leaders may actually come to understand what is needed and decide it is worth paying for it, for the sake of "Homeland Security". Maybe.
Down here in Alabama folk say they are almost - almost --- willing to forgive New Yorkers for being Yankees in light of our suffering on September 11 and thereafter. It's clear however, that American flags, Bald Eagles, police and the national anthem have very different meanings down here, compared to their significance in New York today. "Of course we care about what happened to New York," Alabamans say, "We're patriotic down here."
As I write it is midnight in New York and the election remains too close to call. Tommy Thompson is talking on MSNBC about "this terrible threat to America": anthrax. An imam is telling CNN viewers that the Taliban don't support violence.
And New York has to go to sleep, anxious to know just who will be leading them in the post-terror world.
Good night, Irene.
Be well. Stay safe. Stand defiant.
Laurie Garrett
