There are a thousand reasons why 9/11 scared us. But more
than the attack on our national pride, the airport security ramifications and
the vulnerability felt by so many, what should weigh heaviest on our hearts are
the thousands dead, the thousands injured and the thousands of mourning friends
and family left behind.
By most counts, 9/11 is the deadliest terrorist attack in
modern history. The service at ground zero in the morning, the events on campus
tomorrow night and the countless events happening around the country and world
this week commemorate that. Let us take this an opportunity to mourn those
3,000 lost lives — and all the innocent lives taken by violent acts throughout
the world.
Because of the massiveness of its atrocity — and because it
happened here — 9/11 can overshadow the acts of terrorism that are constantly
occurring.
The University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database lists
730 terrorism attacks other than the Sept. 11 bombings reported between Aug. 1
and Nov. 1, 2011. Hundreds died, in just those three months, in minor and major
incidents in India, Switzerland, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Russia — everywhere.
Terrorism happens every day. If it’s not an attack on a
business or government building, a bomb in a subway or an assassination of a leader,
it’s destruction of private property.
In addition to all that, so many of our soldiers — and
soldiers from the United Nations, the U.K. and every nation that has a force
that works to promote peace — operate in environments of terror every day, trying
to make the world a better place.
Putting an end to fear and violence takes those soldiers. It
takes government diplomats. It takes every single one of us, doing the very
best we can to swallow our pride and animosity and xenophobia, every single
day.
A real war on terror has no start and end dates.
No comments:
Post a Comment