On September 11, Daniel Buckman was in New York City for his book tour. While jogging in Manhattan he saw the first plane as it headed toward the World Trade Center. “It was like, ‘One thousand one, one thousand two,’” he says. “You just knew something terrible was going to happen.” What did the former 82nd Airborne paratrooper do next? “I did what every good soldier boy does, man. I ran!” He went back to his hotel and watched until the gray smoke got so thick he couldn’t see anymore.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Buckman was a United Nations observer at Sinai during the first intifada in 1987. “The Israeli soldiers would bait Palestinian kids up to the wire, then shoot at them with rubber bullets. They even taunted us. We’ve supported bullying around the world. I think we got off cheap compared to what we’ve done. September 11 really freaked a lot of people out….The country was in a bit of a sentimental goo for a while, but I don’t think the media really explained why this happened.”
Heinemann’s National Book Award-winning novel Paco’s Story explores the difficulties a soldier experiences after returning home from the Vietnam war. Heinemann says the main role of books in combating jingoism “has to do with keeping people honest, calling a spade a spade.” He finds the racist aspect of jingoism particularly disturbing: “It greatly concerns me that there is this racial profiling of young Arab men. If I got one of those letters I’d show up at the FBI with a lawyer.”
