I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It - Charles Barkley [64]
On Tuesday, September 11, I was at home in Philly, just getting up to get ready to get on the Metroliner to go to New York City for Joe Pesci’s charity golf tournament. My secretary called and said, “What are you doing? Well, you’re not going to New York today. You’d better turn on the television.”
When I turned on the TV neither tower had fallen yet. But both towers had been attacked. I just sat there the whole day in a trance. I watched it all day, every moment. Six or eight hours later I went out to get something to eat, and then I went right back to watching it. I guess my primary emotion was sadness. It’s just so sad to me that there’s this kind of evil on the planet, people this evil among human beings. And it’s not just the terrorist acts against the United States, it’s the kidnapping and killing of young kids, the shootings in these schools. I’m just nervous and sad that there are so many bad people in the world. I guess I was in shock, just numb over the whole thing.
The thing I’ll admit to hoping for in the wake of 9/11 was a kinder and gentler America. And I’m sure there are people out there who were so profoundly affected that they changed some basic things about their lives, like the way they treat people, the way they conduct themselves professionally or personally. I figured—and I guess I was really naive—that as horrible and as tragic as this was, it was a chance for people to pull together and fundamentally change things about ourselves and about our country. How could you not hope that when you’re watching policemen and firemen and average citizens risk their lives to help people? The way people came to each other’s rescue, you had to be inspired and hopeful something productive could eventually come from this. I know I was. I thought, “Okay, we’ve got a chance now to be better to each other and just be more respectful of each other.” People were on TV saying this would change us forever. How could you watch what happened in the days immediately after 9/11 and not feel “We’re all in this together”?
You know how long things were different?
It didn’t even last two full weeks. Four days? Maybe a week. That’s about it. Maybe it was longer in New York because of the impact there, but that’s it. But everywhere else, it was business as usual. Democrat vs. Republican, liberal vs. conservative, black vs. white. We didn’t even get to October and we were pitted against each other again. Damn. I have to admit I was disappointed because I figure we all want the same things out of life. People, regardless of what race or ethnic group, seem to want to join in the pursuit of happiness, personally and professionally. But if that tragedy and the response to it can’t rally us for more than a week, then what the hell can? In a week’s time we were back to the same old life of lying and stealing and cheating poor folks and killing children. If we’re going to fight off all this evil, we’ve got to do better. We’ve got to pull together.
Moses Was Right
I modeled my game after Adrian Dantley and John Drew because they were undersized guys who had to play inside offensively but also had some perimeter skills they developed over the years that helped them evolve and become complete players. Dantley’s 6-5, if that tall, and he averaged