The lesson of our generation

Why some of us are failing to learn from September 11

By Andrew R Quinio
From the September 2006 Print Edition

On the most tragic day in our nation’s history, many of us were enjoying the innocence of untroubled adolescence. Five years ago, what should have been a routine day in high school turned into a day of uncertainty, when passenger planes unexpectedly slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

It was only the second week of my sophomore year in high school when I woke up to the chaotic images on television. One of the twin towers was on fire and no one on the news could provide an explanation. Just before I was ready to head out, another plane hit the second tower. Throughout the day, my entire school felt the uneasiness of not knowing who attacked America or what could happen next.

When the dust cleared, the character of our generation was shaped. Five years after, the teens whose youthful memories were marred by that tragic day continued to bear the responsibility of preserving a free nation. For the last five years, we were given the choice of either accepting that responsibility or willfully ignoring it. Sadly many in our generation have chosen the latter.

No generation in the history of the United States has ever been more comfortable than ours. We have become so comfortable, that comfort has become a right. Thus, the idea of being responsible for something greater than ourselves has become foreign, since the idea itself requires a great deal of discomfort. It is true that we are consistently busy with our personal responsibilities of maintaining our GPAs, enhancing our social lives, and minding our extracurricular activities, but such things have become so routine that they have become embedded in our comfort zone. It is the unexpected responsibilities that bother our generation, but within the unforeseen burdens, we either display our resolve or expose our immaturity.

On September 11, the threat to America could not be any clearer. We as Americans were united against radical Islam. We knew how important it was to "always remember and never forget." But as we got further away from that tragic day, many of our peers purposely chose to forget, covering their ears with their iPods and hoping the memory would simply fade away forever. It suddenly became too soon for movies like United 93 and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center to be made. It was actually just too soon for some to be reminded of their responsibility to this country.

Many of our peers simply refuse to believe that terrorism exists, for doing so would force them to take responsibility for America’s well-being. Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." But our generation cannot be bothered by questions of good or evil. Life is too short. That is why some find comfort when Michael Moore declares, "There is no terrorist threat." So they watched Moore’s false documentary in great numbers, since it provided false reassurance that their lives could be lived carefree, without the burdensome duties of defending right over wrong. Every day could be like a day in Iraq, with clear skies and children flying kites.

We are just not used to the idea of good and evil being part of our daily lives, so we will simply ignore it. Unfortunately, evil is not going to ignore us. The Muslim terrorists wanted to attack America, and their message was meant even for the bystanders of Berkeley. Thus, our generation felt that the best way to remove the target from their backs was to proclaim that they were "world citizens," with no particular alliance to the United States. Our peers at Cal may think that denouncing their U.S. citizenship with anti-American protests will reduce their chances of getting incinerated, but the jihadists could not care less. No matter how much our generation wants to ignore its place in the United States, radical Islam is not going to take the time to pick and choose its victims.

And when our generation is not ignoring terrorism, it is acknowledging it as some sort of a bad dream. The rock band Green Day has a song called, "Wake Me Up When September Ends," an obvious reference to 9/11. The music video shows the story of a young man who joins the Army to fight in Iraq. The scenes of his torturous training at boot camp are interrupted by flashbacks of him and his girlfriend enjoying idyllic moments together in their hometown. At the end of the video, he is shown in a Baghdad alley, crouched in a fetal position. He is sobbing with his hands covering his ears, and RPGs getting dangerously close to his position. Throughout the whole video, you hear Green Day pleading in song, "Wake me up when September ends."

Nothing can better define the attitude of our peers than Green Day’s music video. They want to sleep through the realities of terrorism and radicalism, hoping it will all be gone when they awake. And since they could not sleep it off, they tried to rock out against it. The "Rock Against Bush" concert tour prior to the 2004 election is another example of America’s young people refusing to take responsibility for their country’s welfare. After all, what better way for terrorism to magically disappear than to rock out against the man who rightfully acknowledges its existence?

Our generation’s indifference toward our enemies is simply a sign of its refusal to be responsible for freedom. The age of comfort has sadly made our peers dependent upon choosing what is easy and what feels good. Unfortunately, fighting radical Muslims is neither easy nor pleasurable.

This past summer, we were reminded again of our duty to the survival of the West. British and American intelligence officials foiled a terrorist plot to blow up commercial jets traveling across the Atlantic. However, the very methods that were used to uncover this plan and prevent further devastation are now being criticized by some of our fellow citizens.

If our generation continues this willful ignorance, it will only be passing the responsibility of freedom to future generations. America’s liberty cannot be guaranteed when those who hold its future are too complacent to defend it. But hope still exists. Many young Americans understand the realities of terrorism and have shaped the ideas and movements that look to preserve a free world. Others have gone beyond the call of duty. The average age of an American soldier is 19 years. As for the rest of our peers, perhaps the Gipper can provide them with this lesson: "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

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