BY LEXI THOMAN
alexandria.thoman@gmail.com
Each generation has an event that that defines them, characterizes their identity and shapes how their view of the world. For the Greatest Generation, it was World War II. For their “Baby Boomer” children after them, it was the Vietnam War and the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s. For my parents in the 1980s, the crescendo of the Cold War shaped their perspective on foreign relations and international security.
Our own generation has been called many things. Generation Y, the “Millennials,” and even the “Peter Pan Generation.” We have many traits that distinguish us from our predecessors (technological literacy, increased narcissism and competitiveness), but no single event has defined who we are more than September 11th.
9/11 touched the life of every single American, from the oldest man to the youngest child. But whereas the terrorist attacks were one more tragedy on a long list of memories for our parents and grandparents, the September 11th terrorist attacks actually shaped our generation.
Some of us might even remember the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, or the 1999 Columbine High School massacre—I remember seeing both events on the news, even though I was too young to fully understand what had happened. Even though these terrible events began the discussion of domestic security, it was 9/11 that truly cemented our awareness, and fear, of terrorism.
Young and impressionable, our childhoods were tainted with the paranoia of terrorism, even if we were not always consciously aware of it. We all remember the exact moment when we found out about 9/11. We remember watching the last plane hit the second tower. We remember invading Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq two years later, all in the name of rooting out terrorist threats to international security. We remember new safety drills and heightened security in our schools, and increased TSA regulations in our airports.
It is in this way that—even though we may not have known it at the time—we grew into “Generation Terror.”
The rise of terrorism itself may not mean the same thing to all Americans of our generation, but it certainly has affected us all. And even though 9/11 was carried out by members of al-Qaida, more recent attacks like the Virginia Tech massacre, the Aurora movie theatre massacre, and the still-fresh Boston Marathon bombings were all committed by American citizens from very different backgrounds.
But perhaps the most unnerving aspect of terrorism is the fact that there are no definitive “front lines,” because we live on them.
Last week’s marathon bombings has only reminded us that we are living in a world struggling to not be defined by terrorism. Even though we may be the first “Generation Terror,” if recent events are any indication, we most certainly will not be the last.
As pioneers into this dark new world controlled by fear, we must strive to study, understand, and combat the causes the phenomenon that is terrorism. But most importantly, we must refuse to let the appalling actions of a few define who we are.
Lexi Thoman is senior international studies and Spanish double-major from St. Louis, Mo.
