October 3, 2001: Prior to the start of its 3rd season, the NBC drama The West Wing airs the standalone episode "Isaac and Ishmael." The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 22 days earlier, are not mentioned in the script. At the start of the episode, the actors asked fans not to ask when in the show's chronology it takes place.
The White House is placed into lockdown after a staffer, Rakim Ali (played by Ajay Naidu, an American actor of Indian descent), is found to share a name with the alias of a suspected terrorist. This leads to two separate storylines. One shows Ali interrogated by the White House Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry (John Spencer).
A group of high schoolers, touring the White House as part of the Presidential Classroom program, are stuck in the cafeteria. Various staffers keep the group occupied with a discussion on the causes of Islamist terrorism.
Eventually, the President, Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) and the First Lady, Dr. Abigail Bartlet (a cardiac surgeon, played by Stockard Channing) walk in. One of the students asks the President if he thinks there's something to martyrdom. He makes a brief statement, with the theme of "We don't need martyrs in this country. We need heroes."
He leaves, but the First Lady sticks around for a while. Another student asks how it all started. She says it's Sarah. In the Bible, God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky. But he was old, and so was his wife, Sarah. Sarah offered her handmaiden, Haggar, to her husband. In Genesis 16, Haggar gives birth to a son, Ishmael.
But in Genesis 21, God keeps His promise, and Sarah gives birth to a son, Isaac. Sarah refused to let Haggar and Ishmael in her house any longer, and kicked them out. This resulted in the apparently never-ending split: The descendants of Isaac, the Jews; and the descendants of Ishmael, the Arabs, who eventually became Muslims.
But Dr. Bartlet points out that, in Genesis 25, when Abraham died, Isaac and Ishmael reunited to bury their father. Meaning that peace may just be possible.
Eventually, the suspected terrorist is found in Germany, and the lockdown is lifted, prompting McGarry to apologize to the staffer. Each man gives the other much to think about, and the episode ends with Leo sitting in his office, thinking, while "For What It's Worth (Stop! Hey, What's That Sound)" by The Buffalo Springfield plays.
Toward the end of Season, 3 the Bartlet Administration foiled a plot to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge, whose southern end is on the grounds of a U.S. Army base, the Presidio, making it both a military target and a public transit target. This plot-foiling made viewers think that, in their world, they stopped "their 9/11." But "Isaac and Ishmael" made it seem as though there was one, anyway.
Or maybe it was a response to events in their world that had previously happened. The attack on the USS Cole was mentioned as having happened in their world, and Osama bin Laden was previously mentioned by name. If the Bartlet Administration ever took him out before leaving office, it wasn't mentioned on the show.
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October 3, 2001 was a Wednesday. Football quarterback C.J. Stroud was born. And these games were played in Major league Baseball:
* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Mike Mussina outpitched Jon Garland. Paul O'Neill went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0 at Shea Stadium. Steve Trachsel pitched a 2-hit shutout. Desi Relaford and Mark Johnson hit home runs.
* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-6 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken, in his last week as an active player, went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-3 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. Tom Glavine outpitched Robert Person.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 10-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
* The Montreal Expos beat the Florida Marlins, 2-0 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida. How many Expos does it take to pitch a 4-hit shutout? This time, 5: Tomo Okha allowed 3 hits over 6 innings, Bobby Muñoz pitched to 3 batters in the 7th and walked them all, Guillermo Mota got the next batter out, Scott Stewart got the next 2 out, and Scott Strickland allowed 1 hit over the last 2 innings. Doubles by Terry Jones, Vladimir Guerrero Sr. and Orlando Cabrera in the bottom of the 7th accounted for all the runs in the game, making Stewart the winning pitcher.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Minnesota Twins, 9-5 at Comerica Park (now Fifth Third Park) in Detroit.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 13-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Jon Lieber won his 20th game of the season. Sammy Sosa hit his 61st home run of the season, the 447th of his career. He had 4 RBIs. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs, including a home run, his 22nd of the season, the 460th of this career. Adam Dunn went 3-for-4 with a solo home run. Corky Miller went 2-for-4 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-7 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
* The San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 11-8 at Enron Field (now Daikin Park) in Houston. Barry Bonds went 1-for-2 with 3 walks and an RBI.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3 at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix.
* The Seattle Mariners beat the Anaheim Angels, 4-3 at Edison International Field of Anaheim (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Ichiro Suzuki went 4-for-5 with a stolen base.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 12-5 at Qualcomm Stadium (formerly San Diego Stadium and Jack
Murphy Stadium). Rickey Henderson went 0-for-3 with a walk. Tony Gwynn, in his last week as an active player, did not play.
* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at the Network Associates Coliseum (as the Oakland Coliseum was then known). Jason Giambi hit 2 home runs, and Eric Chavez went 4-for-4 with an RBI.
