The September 11th attack
Hawai'i's people won't let it disrupt daily lives
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan sent a ripple of unease across Hawai'i as some residents expressed fears of more terrorist attacks on the Mainland and possibly in the Islands.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
But none of them would let it get to them or their day-to-day activities.
Richard Ciesco, waiting for a flight back to California, reads about the U.S. and British air strikes against terrorists in Afghanistan. Ciesco said he was on his way back to his high school in Rockland, Calif.
"People need to go shopping," said Heather Denton, a registered nurse from Nu'uanu. "I'm serious. We're a big, military center here and, yeah, we're a target. But if I lose sleep over it, then they (terrorists) win and that doesn't make sense."
Unlike the stunned and angry emotions of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, news of U.S. air strikes was met with a resignation that a long military campaign is finally under way, with the possibility of more American casualties on U.S. soil.
"Anything could happen," said Suzanne Nakamura, a sales clerk who was shopping with her niece and pushing her two daughters in strollers. "It makes me concerned about the future. But we need to carry on, we need to go about our lives."
Michelle Perez no longer watches much television news. It's too depressing.
She's an airman first class for the Air Force. Her husband, Elmer Perez, is an Army staff sergeant. Together, they have a 14-month-old son. And together they worry about how the military's needs might affect their family.
"We bombed them," she said. "I'm just waiting to see what they do next. I know they're not just going to sit there."
Jack and Tina Parker believe they've already done what they can to protect themselves. Like many others, they refuse to do anything more under the threat of terrorist attacks.
"You worry about retaliation here, just not to the point where you refuse to go out," Tina Parker said. "How much safer can you be?"
Jack Parker owns several guns and plenty of ammunition and sees no need to buy more.
"I already have a sufficient supply," he said.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
Most people yesterday were not beefing up home security or wrestling with waves of emotions or changing their daily routines.
Military and federal police officers patrol Waikiki Beach just outside the Hale Koa Hotel, a resort for military people.
They were like Carl Merseburgh, a security officer for Victoria Ward Centers who was patrolling the company's shopping centers on bicycle.
"We have to live our lives as we're supposed to," he said. "You can't live your life by being afraid."
Lihu'e accountant Patrick Ibbs said he doesn't worry about being safe from terrorist attacks.
"I'm not at all concerned in the state of Hawai'i," he said. "I have concerns about traveling overseas, but domestically, no. I think it's safer now than it was before the attacks."
Others have found a sense of safety in Hawai'i's distance from the events on the Mainland and the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Annette Cook, a legal secretary for a Wailuku attorney, didn't hear about the air strikes until nearly 8 p.m. Sunday, after a friend called and asked for her opinion.
"I'm glad we did it,'' Cook said.
She added that she feels no sense of uneasiness and no threat to her personal safety.
"Maui is so far away,'' she said.
Staff writers Jan TenBruggengate and Timothy Hurley contributed to this report. Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
