Editorial: Remembering 9/11
Do you remember September 11th, 2001?
If you’re like the majority of our campus—somewhere between the ages of 18 and 22, born somewhere from 1994 to 1998—the memories might be a little hazy. The events of September 11th changed our lives, whether we knew it at the time or not. We started wars in Afghanistan and Iran, wars that, at least in some respects, are still ongoing. The USA Patriot Act increased government surveillance with the goal of increased national security, and came at the expense of civil liberties and privacy. And while it may be clichéd, we now have to take our shoes off at the airport; hours of waiting at TSA checkpoints is now the norm.
We could use this editorial to argue the importance of annually commemorating that tragic day. However, the reality is that if the interest to hold such memorials was strong enough, they would have happened (or at least, been publicly petitioned for) last Sunday. In gauging the lack of public outcry for the absence of such an event, per- haps our student body would be better served participating in active, academic discussions about September 11th.
Our current student body, members who fall into the ‘memories are hazy’ group, occupy an incredibly valuable role in these conversations. Again, we’re likely too young to remember the specifics of the day, but we’ve grown up almost completely in the post 9/11 world. We can—and should— have discussions where we pro- vide a unique perspective that balances emotional attachment and firsthand, academic perspectives. And we all attend an institute for higher education that promotes and thrives on such conversations. Yet the College, which should spearhead these efforts, scheduled nothing this past weekend to engage students in such discussions.
The College’s Center for Ethics theme this semester is War & Peacebuilding, so it seems that conversation or lecture on our post-9/11 world, would be a natural fit. But again, no such talk is on the schedule; the talks about the war in the Middle East on the schedule are not directly related to 9/11. It’s puzzling, to say the least.
Of course, there’s also an inherent danger in not having these conversations; as George Santayana famously said, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to re- peat it.” But what happens if our students cease talking about 9/11? The difference between simply remembering and actively talking is an important one. As students get younger and younger, the emotional attachment associated with hold- ing a memorial service or commencing a moment of silence with bells—both things done by Muhlenberg over the past fifteen years on 9/11—lessens. Current and future student bodies represent our future leaders, and we stand to lose a lot if we don’t at least discuss our post- 9/11 world.
The current students on our campus are perfectly positioned to have the most important conversations about 9/11. This is why talking about it today is so important. This is also why a lack of such discussions on our campus this past weekend was so disconcerting.