The Light After the Dark

Nine years ago today, the United States of America was fundamentally and irrevocably changed. When the towers fell, they brought with it not only the lives of thousands of innocents, but the unspoken barrier that many of our citizens thought separated America from the chaos and turmoil of the world.

In the almost decade since, the world has shifted, as well. Two American-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are the most notable example, but the geopolitical readjustment has impacted people far beyond that, from Muslim refugees now stuck with less chance than ever before of asylum offers in countries allied with the US, to your average global traveler who faces more restrictions and suspicion than ever before.

The first decade after September 11th has been, unfortunately, characterized by war. One in direct response to the attacks, and one that had been waiting impatiently in the on-deck circle of neoconservatives for the right opportunity. Yet war and violence are a strange phenomena. They bring out the worst in people, yes, but very often also the best. Violence strips us so bare -- to our fragile, mortal core -- that it can create a rare and unique sense of common condition.

While it would be easy to view the September 11th story as violence that begat violence, there is another story, as well. For a huge number of people, 9/11 was the catalyst that shifted the way they thought about the world -- and more importantly, the need for them to be involved in making that world a better place. For members of the Millennial generation, the attack -- and even more, its response -- were a massive prod to think differently about how we were going to assert our voice and ideas.

Much of this activity was not simply tangentially inspired by 9/11, but had a direct overlap with the issues of religious intolerance and war churned up by the attack. An example is the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization started by Eboo Patel and a number of other Chicago-based interfaith advocates. While their push for religious pluralism started a number of years before the bombings, the attacks created a cultural context in which their programs -- which bring together young people of varied faith backgrounds to participate in common service and learn from one another -- became even more important.

Other innovators have focused on another consequence of the last decade: the increased number of veterans, many of whom are dealing with the physical and emotional scars of multiple tours of duty. The Mission Continues is an organization founded by a team of brilliant veterans who saw men and women who had performed heroically come back to a society not properly prepared to use their talents. The Mission Continues helps wounded veterans build careers of service.

The historian in me thinks that the first decade after September 11th will be remembered as a dark time, filled with violence and turmoil. The optimist in me thinks that the next decade will be remembered as a time of increasing promise, when we began to shake off the collective instinct towards retribution and rebuild towards a sane and just 21st century.

And when I survey the incredible, massive, incalculable shift in sentiment and feeling of purpose among young people today, the rationalist in me thinks that the decade after that will be remembered as the decade where we finally lived up to not just the technological but ethical promise of an interconnected world.

Photo credit: leppre