I have lived longer with the aftermath of 9/11 then without. I do not remember a time when it was possible to sneak a box cutter or mace into an airplane. I have vague recollections of once visiting the World Trade Center but very little of the actual day. It has been ten years, and I realize that for the younger people the “remembrance” is walking past a place of worship to see large cement barriers that you were told were not there before, or to walk with a parent who might tell you that they used to know the directions in this area based on the location of the towers. When I look back, since the beginning of the time I started to observe current events, there is always the phantom of 9/11 sneering from the faces of the United States military in Iraq or Afghanistan, the ongoing terror and slaughter of both sides omnipresent in current events.

9/11 represents a national loss of innocence. The freedom from worry is not of our generation. Ours is growing into the wake of this attack. We have already lost the war; we have relinquished our freedom to not worry. The process of evolution has begun in our generation. We are witnessing the indoctrination of a nation, a group of people who are slowly adapting to a world where the threat of terror is not on a television program, but in being told to scan your surroundings on the subway by the same voice that reminds you of your destination. It is walking into an airport to have your eight-year-old brother frisked for bombs and your shoes removed. I distinctly remember in fifth grade completing a worksheet for a geography class entitled “Where is Osama Bin Laden?” the goal, to make guesses as to where he was hiding based on news articles of sightings. It was only this year that he was caught. For ten years the faces of Bin Laden and Al Queda brought back the reflux of 9/11. As in any time, it is easier to destroy then to build. They have pledged themselves to destruction, they have taken the lives of thousands, they have tainted the faces of their religions and countries. America stands for building. What they destroyed in one day has taken 10 years to scab. While it will never heal, the skin has become callous. The population has been taken into the harsh light and knows the face of their enemy.

My father lived through 9/11. He was one of thousands who was evacuated from the World Financial Center a few minutes before the World Trade Tower fell and sheared it. One of hundreds of thousands in the exodus from lower Manhattan engulfed by the dust cloud, he never saw America the same way again. That moment, his America was gone as was those of everyone old enough to remember. In one decision, a minority has spread their hate like cancer.

The most horrific part of 9/11 for all people was the suddenness. It was the outbreak of a disease that could not have been foreseen. Other than the novelty of using a plane as a missile, this was the first direct attack, unprovoked, on a trusting and naïve population of civilians. Scarier yet, is that while Bin Laden is dead, he has an influence that is not based on his life, but the far reaching of his brainwashing. How do you fight something that is breaking out in the skin of your own country? How do you fight invisible enemies? The people who follow his lessons are those who do not know otherwise. After 9/11 we responded with an internal movement: preparation. Bin Laden awoke the immune system in America. While we have responded to the infection of terrorism, we need to forestall the possibility of more. We have shown that it is possible to educate a population of the dangers of terrorism. However, now we need to reverse the messages being sent. The answer does not lie in brute force wars that only cause a proliferation of the disease, but rather the new theater has to be counteraction using ideas, education, and reversing the influence of Osama Bin Laden. The tools are here. America has invented the internet, social media, and all the virtual roads of today. Terrorism is dangerous because it targets those who do not have the resources to understand the cause. The only way to fight an idea is with another. The war is not taking place within gunsights but rather the minds of the people who make decisions about where their faith lies.

Kalia Firester
Age 14, Grade 9,
Hunter College High School
Silver Key