Editorial: You can change the post-9/11 world — if you want to
September 8, 2011
You
probably remember where you were and what you were doing when you
heard about the terrorist attacks. Ten years ago, we joined the
ranks of people who remember the same details of Dec. 7, 1941; Nov.
22, 1963; and Jan. 28, 1986.
We
members of the Editorial Board were in many places.
Jake
Lovett was waking up from an outpatient procedure at a
hospital.
Michael
Belding was standing in line to catch the bus from his elementary
school to his middle school.
Rick
Hanton was also standing in line waiting for a school bus when a
younger neighbor told him the news; that morning’s cartoons had
been interrupted.
Gabriel
Stoffa was in art class, painting a picture of Wall
Street.
Ryan
Peterson was at school in homeroom class.
Claire
Vriezen was at home. After going to a friend’s house, she saw the
towers’ collapse.
Whether
you stumble around at the Iowa-Iowa State game this weekend or go
about your daily life, consider this: 10 years ago, the people of
this country were attacked and jolted out of their innocence. We
were whipped into a vivid understanding of how dangerous our world
is.
The
terrorist attacks joined the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the
assassination of President Kennedy and the explosion of the space
shuttle Challenger as events that remind us that ours is a
dangerous world.
We
discovered that the United States is not insulated from security
issues. We experienced on one day the violent, unpredictable
features of daily life in countries such as Israel and Lebanon.
Now, thousands of soldiers daily run those same risks so we don’t
have to here at home.
Consider
our post-9/11 world. After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, we all
understood sacrifice with clarity. We were a unified nation,
everybody was patriotic.
But
single-minded unity is dangerous. Treason is a grave accusation.
Dissent is a part of our political inheritance, not disloyalty.
Political witch-hunts against the indispensable opposition should
not be in our repertoire.
Using
memories of 9/11 to frighten and intimidate is an insult to the
memory of those who have died in America’s service since then. If
our post-9/11 world is different from the one before it, it isn’t
because 9/11 changed us. It is because we changed it. Our world is
what we make it. It’s a matter of choice.
Our
innocence may have been shattered and malaise may plague us a
decade later, but this country was founded on the idea that we can
remake the world. Centuries after that founding, having withstood
many crises of faith, we can do so again.
