all times and places and not determined by circumstance, but in the days immediately following the attack only 22% were willing to affirm that.2 The language of evil had become a verbal necessity after September 11, but it remained a cultural and conceptual difficulty. That this was the case was all too evident a year later when signs were popping up all over the cultural landscape suggesting that outrage over the attack was out of order. For example, the National Education Association advised teachers