"Rudy Giuliani tells Boston: No need for guilt over attacks"

Tuesday, October 8, 2002

OPINION
Giuliani plays fair
By Brian McGrory - Columnist
The Boston (MA) Globe


Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called last night with a long
overdue message for all of Boston: There is no reason for this city to
feel even a speck of guilt about its role in the Sept. 11 attack. 

To be fair, I raised the issue, not him. He was pitching his book,
''Leadership,'' and his favored candidate, Mitt Romney, prior to his
publicity and campaign trip to Boston this morning.

But from this vantage, ours has been a city plagued by guilt since the
hours after the attack. Maybe it's the Irish-Catholic heritage or maybe
it's something else, but while the rest of the nation mourned the
collapse of the World Trade Center towers, Bostonians were busy
assessing - and accepting - blame. It is, Giuliani said with an
uncharacteristic softness, a needless exercise of self-flagellation.

''The thing I've learned going through the horrible crash, and the days
after that, and the other plane crashes I've dealt with along the way,
is that when a horrific incident occurs, there's almost a natural
response for people to assume guilt, and then there's finger-pointing,
and a lot of it is unhealthy.

''The responsibility for this is on the terrorists who planned it and
carried it out,'' he said. ''There's no one who should feel guilty but
them, because for anyone else to feel guilty, it takes the
responsibility away from them.''

But what of Logan Airport? Local pundits and talk show hosts spent an
inordinate amount of ink and time excoriating the people who ran
Massport. And unlike every other airport in the nation, officials here
were publicly humiliated and fired. Our state and city leaders let
perfectly decent underlings dangle in the political winds as they
themselves ran for cover.

Foolishness, Giuliani declared on his cellphone in New York.

''The issue of airport security is a national issue. It's not much
different in Boston than the airports in New York and the rest of the
country. There is nothing about it that's unique to Boston. They were
issues we had before Sept. 11, and hopefully we're addressing them
now.''

He added, ''Those planes could have come out of anywhere and attacked
any American city.''

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the unvarnished truth.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID8

*****************************************