Opinion Staff Editorial

Our upbringing in a post-9/11 world

A piece of the World Trade Center stands by the Student Center as a memorial to 9/11. | File photo/The Cougar

 

The morning of September 11, 2001, most of us were too young to comprehend what was happening. Some of us were just excited that we got to go home early from school, only to come home and find out that something really bad had happened.

Terrorism, the lowest form of human behavior, wasn’t something you grew up knowing. We didn’t experience it. September 11th reflects a distant memory of how the world stopped turning.

Maybe we couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of the tragedy, but none of us could have foreseen that this was the event that would shape the environment we would all grow up in.

Many of our parents became more protective of us, some even indoctrinating us with the idea that we should treat Muslims or anyone from the Middle East with scorn.

A sense of added security surrounded us, our privacy was shortened as the government responded by creating agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and using the National Security Agency to wiretap people’s phone calls in an effort to “combat terror.”

Younger Americans might not realize it, but 9/11 didn’t just change the way airport security was conducted. When the U.S. decided to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, many of us began to develop a strong anti-war attitude.

We became the new generation to experience the War on Terror, with half of us answering the call of duty and the other half taking to the streets to protest what we thought was an unnecessary war.

Some of us even became the children of veterans and if not, we more than likely know someone who served in Iraq or Afghanistan (or both).

Younger students might not have the same experience, but all of us need to be aware and acknowledge that 9/11 didn’t just impact New Yorkers or military families. We all felt the aftereffects of this tragedy in some way.

We’re stronger than ever, but to the young community, 9/11 doesn’t hit hard enough. Moving forward, the memory of that day gets slightly fainter, we were just kids when it happened. But we owe it to this nation to go back and always remember this tragedy as a mark of unity, forgiveness and awareness.

To know what’s best for the present and our future, we must get to understand the past.

No matter where we came from or what we did, that day of silence became golden. We all came together to lend a hand or a gesture, signifying that we weren’t alone.

We’ll continue to move forward.

— The Cougar Editorial Board

1 Comment

  • “Many of our parents became more protective of us, some even indoctrinating us with the idea that we should treat Muslims or anyone from the Middle East with scorn.”

    ++
    You mean the way they treat us with their “Death to America” chants, their handing out candy in celebration of the attacks, their hatred of our liberalism, our separation of “church” and state…

    Isn’t that what you really mean but your dyslexia got the better of you?

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