Remembering to Change

We remember a time when we were more invincible and less vulnerable. A world in which the lexicon of “terror alerts”, “axis of evil”, “ground zero”, and “extremism” did not possess the same connotations for our national psyche. Nostalgically, we lower ourselves into a pre-9/11 past with the flags at half-mast asking and answering the question: “Where were you when…?”

I had just begun my undergraduate studies at The University of Memphis and was in my ACAD class when the first tower was hit. Even though a decade has passed, I still do not have any explanations for the deadly actions of a very small group of individuals. Some reasons point to hate, and other reasons to fear. Perhaps, too, the individuals who chose to commit the horrors of 9/11 were standing behind their own personal truths and ideals, and if that situation was the case, what did we, as a nation, do to heighten their defenses? What I do know now is that our world is different because of the events of 9/11, or is it?

It is important to acknowledge the lives lost and the families left with raw wounds where their loved ones once were. Yet, other than leaving my liquids behind at the airport security gates and existing with increased government surveillance much of which I am probably unaware, my life is not radically different because of the events of September 11^th. Your lives, as freshmen, may, in fact, be very similar to my life as a freshman. I am, and perhaps you are too, separated from the front lines of the war on terror wherever they happen to be drawn.

In fact, we hear much about continuing to live, not giving into feelings of fear which only serve to satisfy our enemies. With time, we become passive…passive to the point of not knowing anymore, if we ever did, who our enemies are. Not only passive but also tolerant. Yet, we have some real enemies that are basking in our tolerance much more than a handful of individuals are basking in our fear.

We are too tolerant that we tolerate a 23.1% poverty rate and the unnecessary death of an infant every 43 hours in our Memphis community. We tolerate a growing hatred for our Muslim brothers and sisters in the interests of national security. We tolerate hunger, environmental degradation, illiteracy, failing educational institutions, domestic violence, genocide… The list goes on.

I am included in the “we”. Therefore, what if we began to focus not so much on the development of attitudes of tolerance but on actions that would embody a more powerful respect for individuals whose lives are different from our own privileged existences? What ideals will we stand behind on this anniversary of 9/11 so that the history books are written depicting positive changes in some of these appalling statistics that represent human lives interconnected to our own?

This day of remembrance gives us an important opportunity to substitute the delusion that we are unconquerable with the reality that we are not superior and have much to learn from others about conquering those injustices which really could lead to our destruction. Where am I now? Where are we now? What will you, as students in this English composition course and in your first years at the university, point to as the most important events that will change the world for the better? What role will we play in making these changes?