It's funny how the "moral high ground" gets to be the destination of choice by commentators during a national crisis. People who don't even know what state the moral high ground sits in have spent the last week tut-tutting those who have tried to figure out what financial benefits or pitfalls were created by the terrorist bombings in New York and Virginia.

The implication is that we should not be thinking about ourselves, and our own material gains or losses, when so many have lost so much more. I could name names, but I don't really see the need. All and all, the treatment of the terrorist attacks by the news and financial media has, to my mind, been outstanding. The point is that the appropriate time to get on with our lives is whenever we feel like doing so, which for many people is now.

This does not mean we are no longer thinking about the tragic loss of life. I doubt that many people can escape the weight of their emotions, whether they have personally lost someone or not. We ALL lost someone. We ALL lost something. Going on with life, and focusing our attentions on some other things, will in no way change this fact.

And yet go on we must. We play football again. We go to the beautician again. We concern ourselves with the stock market and personal finance again. And we should not feel guilty for doing so, because these things are good for us.

The markets dropped, but at least they worked
On Monday the stock markets, as predicted, dropped precipitously after being closed for an extraordinary week. Yesterday the markets stabilized, and some of the companies that dropped precipitously on Monday began to rebound. Regardless of the drop, I was plain happy to see that the New York Stock Exchange could handle the stress of operating less than a week after its communications and electricity infrastructure was decimated when the World Trade Center collapsed. The direction of the market did not matter much to me. What I found awe-inspiring was that it worked at all. Take that, ignorant weirdo terrorists.

Yes, the Dow Jones Industrials lost 684 points, more than 7%, to levels not seen since 1998. Yes, it was the largest one-day point drop in history. But does that really seem so important? No. It's transitory. In fact, that drop, from a percentage basis (7.1%), was not even in the top 10 worst days. 'Twas but a scratch.

The markets worked. That, given the proximity to -- and the direct losses caused by -- the attacks on the World Trade Center, was a victory. It was a highly emotional day, one girded from further losses by an extraordinary measure by regulators to prop up market values, but it was, for all intents and purposes, normal.

"I can't stay at home anymore"
Of course, things are far from normal. But I realized that it was time to get going when I saw an interview with Cantor Fitzgerald and eSpeed (Nasdaq: ESPD) CEO Howard Lutnick. His companies occupied the top floors of one of the World Trade Center towers and suffered a monumental loss of life among their employees -- perhaps as high as 700. But there he was, talking about his remaining employees telling him that they couldn't stay home anymore, that they had to get back to work. You can be sure the Cantor people are not diving back into work out of disrespect for their fallen brothers and sisters.

President Bush asked us to get back to our normal lives. So did Rudy Giuliani. So let's do it.

And getting back to work means dealing with our world as it is. In the stock market this means we have some companies out there that have been grievously harmed by these attacks. I could laundry list those again, but I probably don't have much to add that hasn't been overdone already. Airlines are in big trouble. Insurance companies will need to break out their checkbooks. We know already.

Other companies, hundreds of them, have been hit from a stock market perspective for no better reason than the fact that we, collectively, are scared and don't feel really good about the way things are going. There are now some extraordinary bargains. But to capitalize on them will require steely nerves and patience.

I bought stocks on Monday, not out of patriotic duty but because I saw some uncommon values. It is my job as a steward to my and my family's money to do this very thing. There are thousands of fund managers, domestic and foreign, whose legal duty it is to do the same thing. They are not paid to rally around the flag, they are paid to protect their shareholders' money. Whether or not they did so by selling massive amounts on Monday is questionable. Certainly, though, the American financial landscape is somewhat different than it was the last time the markets were open here.

Getting on with business means we participate in this great capitalist notion called "the market" by making the best financial decisions we possibly can. There is nothing unpatriotic about pulling money out of the market if you are scared, nor is there anything sinister about selling shares short. These activities make the market more robust; they don't destabilize it.

If you are worried about General Electric's (NYSE: GE) operations with regard to aircraft engines, airplane finance, insurance, and capital financing, then sell the company and don't look back. You do no one any good holding onto a position out of patriotic duty. Not now, not ever -- because in investing emotion is not your friend. Make your decisions, but make them based on the facts as you know and understand them. Many people did this very thing on Monday, as GE sold off by more than 12% on 71 million shares traded. This is not a bad thing. It is a symptom of a bad time.

A wise man pointed out that no external condition is permanent: not war, not recession, not a boom. Nor will last week's attack be a weight upon our economic shoulders forever. Emotionally, it is a burden we will bear for ages. But the economy will rebound, and when it does the stocks of the companies leading the way will bear fruit.

If you do want to be patriotic, there are hundreds of ways to do it. You could give money to one of the relief funds. You could buy government or corporate bonds, which unlike stock provide liquidity directly to the issuers. You could even make the commitment to get your own financial house in order.

And you can take the biggest patriotic step of all: Get back to work.

Fool on!

Bill Mann, TMFOtter on the Fool Discussion Boards

Bill Mann owns shares of General Electric. His stock holdings can be viewed online, as can the Motley Fool's disclosure policy.