They’re gone. They’re just … gone.” I couldn’t shake those thoughts and overcome the feeling of disbelief while watching the World Trade Center towers collapse.
Six years ago today. The day of our collective loss of innocence. The day we, as a generation, witnessed humanity’s cruel and raw capacity for destruction.
Nothing demonstrates the indiscriminate nature of fate like the collage of the pictures of the 2,882 victims that prosecutors created for the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. Take a moment to find it online. Thousands of people, aged 2 to 82, of all races and creeds had their lives cut short. Imagine the dreams and ambitions of the youngsters killed that day and the families left behind by the adults.
Al-Qaeda’s motivations, stated three years earlier in a fatwa – America’s occupation of the Arabian Peninsula, aggression toward Iraq and support of Israel – were geopolitical circumstances set into motion decades ago by individuals unrelated to the victims. The attacks served as a reminder to Americans that we cannot sit idly and let others make policy decisions that adversely affect the volatility of the world and the safety of those at home. The consequences can be catastrophic.
With our loss of innocence came a loss of na’veté. Idealism is dead. Hope doesn’t stop shrapnel. We can’t place daisies in rifle barrels and dream for world peace. We need to struggle toward it.
Our generation’s circumstances instill in us the responsibility to understand how religion, politics and economics have formed the world we live in. We need insightful arguments to discover the path towards an existence that is more stable and sustainable and have the courage to embark on the arduous journey toward creating it.
There are open questions we must answer. How should a super power behave in the international arena? Can we maintain our place of dominance in the world? How can we spur multilateral cooperation to deal with the problems facing humanity? The privilege of answering these questions will be given to those who are the most politically aware and organized.
Fortunately, with our responsibility comes opportunity not afforded to generations past. Access to the political workings of our country, even in an open democracy, was once yielded only to a lucky and affluent few. The right to vote – one of the most fundamental rights in a democracy – was originally restricted solely to white land-owning males. Now it is given to citizens regardless of sex, race and class.
The Internet makes our government more transparent than ever. The scandalous firings of U.S. attorneys earlier this year were uncovered primarily by the diligent contributors to Talking Points Memo, a web-based news source, before any of the major news outlets picked it up. Additionally the Bush administration now even gives White House press passes to bloggers.
People worldwide are using technology to talk to and learn from each other. YouTube members such as “Alive in Baghdad” and “Chat the Planet” post videos showing the effect of the American occupation on ordinary people in Iraq. Fiber-optic lines laid before the dot-com bust still span the Earth’s oceans and provide practically limitless potential for worldwide communication and collaboration. We are witnessing an unprecedented nexus of technology and capital that empowers the individual.
Startup costs are minimal. Passion and talent rule the day.
We are blessed and cursed with the lessons learned that morning six years ago. Life is precious, yet some can have terrible disregard for it. No one can be truly insulated from world happenings. Decisions made generations ago that seem only to affect small regions of the world thousands of miles away can have enduring and devastating impacts on American soil. It is up to us to learn about our place in history so we can make the best decisions for those who come later.
The stakes have never been greater, but then again, neither have the opportunities for ordinary people to shape our future.
Benjamin Johnson is a senior physics major. He can be reached at katsuo@umd.edu.
