Drive in the DC area long enough and you will discover your own special traffic hell spots , those stretches of road created to torment you more than any other. One of mine is the turn off from Canal Road near Cabin John in Maryland that you have to take when Park Police turn it into a one way stretch every week day at 2:45PM. Blocking off access to Canal Rd toward DC forces motorists to essentially make a U turn that funnels them up to McArthur Blvd., which can then be taken toward the District.
Thing is, two lanes of traffic now has to become one line, as everyone waits to make the U turn whenever a break in the stream of Maryland bound commuters from DC affords them an opportunity. Needless to say, this immediately backs traffic up, and the line steadily grows in size. Of course the right lane, which now goes nowhere except up to the barricade blocking Canal Road remains open, tempting nefarious line cutters to continue up as far as possible before merging into the left lane waiting to turn. And it is that temptation, and the willingness of so many to accede to its invitation that has caused many a heated confrontation.
The best image to describe the situation is a line to get movie tickets. Obviously, if a person walked toward the front and just cut in without a word, the wrath of all would descend on them. But being in a steel box with wheels imbibes many with nerve and gall that otherwise wouldn’t cross their minds. Some plead ignorance, acting as if they were clueless why one lane was uninhabited for a half mile and then relying on the good graces of others, who had just waited ten minutes to make it to the front, to permit their rudeness.
Regulars take to occupying the right lane as the line moves to prevent cutters from getting past, their spot secured by other motorists in the line. This tactic often leads to ugliness, as more determined and impatient cutters honk and gesture, unconcerned that they are acting like civilized society’s lowest life form. Point is, a situation is set up daily between 2:45 and 6:30pm that provides an opportunity for countless commuters to flaunt established order and act as nasty and anti-social as is possible.
For a month or more after 9/11 the Canal Road turn off moved much smoother, the beneficiary of national unity. People thought twice about cutting, respecting the time and estimation of their fellow citizens, and figuring a few extra minutes wasn’t worth the collective scorn of neighbors; after all, weren’t we all in this together? It was a glorious interlude of civic cooperation; without the delays of cutters, the Canal Road turn off ebbed as a delay of consequence. Like everything immediately following one of our worst national traumas, “I” became “we”… and the benefits were tangible.
I can think of worse ways to honor our fallen from that dark day every year than to make a point to earmark 24 hours of national unity and cooperation, if for no other reason than to experience its benefits. Of course such a declaration should start at the top; it’s only right that our national leader set the example for us to follow. Perhaps a tweet, and a statement, calling for a one day moratorium on division? Well, I suppose that will have to wait.
Yet and still, we should remember with hopeful pride those days immediately following the 9/11 attacks as proof we can embrace what is most important precisely at a time it is most critical to do so. Perhaps if we remind ourselves once a year we have done it before, it will revitalize our ambitions to do it again, and demand leaders who speak of division as a national liability, rather than a snake oil remedy for ignorant fears necessary to gains of various special interests.
Any parent of young children in 2001 can tell you seventeen years have passed in the snap of one’s fingers. Dawn becomes dusk and repeat…over and over. Yet and still, much destruction and impulsive folly has filled those days in the name of avenging the victims of a small cabal of mad men and their sponsors. Meanwhile, we are far more divided now than we were September 10, 2001. Perhaps another catastrophe is the only thing capable of snapping us out of our intractable tribalism. But like that diet you put off, or fitness regime, or sobriety; change happens a day at a time. September 11 is as good a date as any to start BC