By Rachel Kalina
Brown became familiar with a feeling of the unknown as she wondered about her uncle¹s safety amid what she described as ³mass hysteria² in her school. She didn¹t know he was alive until, like many others on Sept. 11, 2001, he came home on one of the few trains still running.
This Sept. 5, Brown and five other students shared their thoughts about 9/11¹s effects on society at Hofstra with MTV anchor Gideon Yago. Yago moderated the Student Town Hall discussion among a six-person panel and about 50 other students as part of a fifth-anniversary symposium. Titled ³The Future of September 11,² the day-long event featured lectures by journalists, first responders and others. It was sponsored by Hofstra, Newsday and the World Trade Center Family Center.
³As a generation,² Brown said during the event, ³we need to take a stand and realize this is our reality. OK, it¹s not as great as it once was, but we have to take accountability.²
Brown¹s thoughts were shared with other students as they examined the changes 9/11 has brought to society. For many, the tragedy has become a turning point between ³then² and ³now.² Speakers cited heightened airplane security and terror alerts as part of a new reality, which most see as innovations.
One Hofstra freshman said she was just in eighth grade at the time, and Sept. 11 quickly became a page in her textbook. She said she can barely remember a time before this ³reality.² Living with fluctuating levels of terror alerts is normal for her, but she said she wants to be less desensitized to these changes.
For many, recent major events like Hurricane Katrina¹s devastation or the Iraq war have added to this desensitization. ³There¹s no doubt about it,² Yago said after the conference. ³It¹s night and day comparing what the outlook was of Generation Y right after Sept. 11 to what it is now.²
He said that many people have expressed a yearning to move on, and other issues have come to the forefront in the past five years. Yago reported from New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina, and in Iraq, as the war continued.
Like Brown, he said, he experienced anxiety whenever he was about to go on a flight. Brown said she grew angry when she was searched during a random airport security check, until the idea of terror attacks snapped back into her head, and she became grateful for the search. A student speaker shared that she assessed the potential damage of an attack even while visiting Disneyland. Yago agreed that many people became their own personal ³insurance actuaries² after 9/11.
The question of whether that day continues to impact people¹s lives was answered mostly with yeses from speakers, but students from places like Maryland and Texas said they had felt less of an effect. Laura Perschke, a freshman interested in print journalism, said she had always wanted to attend college in New York. The attacks were not a deterrent for her, she said.
For those who felt that the solidarity expressed by Americans after 9/11 had waned and that a new reality, filled with unconscious angst, was unacceptable, Yago posed a question: ³How are you going to effect change?²
Hofstra junior J.P. DiMartino was quick to respond. ³Don¹t fall for homeland security,² he said. The American studies major suggested that students be critical of what they are told via the media and that they do their own research about current events to educate themselves. He said that having a voice and expressing opinions is a good way to make a difference in the world. ³One voice won¹t make a difference,² he said, ³but without that voice you can¹t make a difference at all.²
Maram Mabrouck, a panelist and a graduate student studying education, agreed with DiMartino. ³Research, learn, read and then get out there and do something about it,² Mabrouck said. ³Educate others, write to Congress.²
Mabrouck had expressed her concerns about what she called misleading portrayals of Muslims and those of Middle Eastern descent after 9/11. One example was the idea that every Muslim wears a turban. Most Muslims, she said, don¹t wear them. She also noted that the world¹s largest population of Muslims lives in Indonesia, not the Middle East.
When one speaker in the audience said that the Koran had taught ³their people² hate, Mabrouck countered that there were only a few biased verses in the Koran.
She said that everywhere people look, they are bombarded with images of Middle Eastern people committing acts of terror, which misleads the public. ³I can¹t blame people for it, because they are not seeing anything else,² Mabrouck said.
At the event¹s conclusion, Yago wished students the ³best of luck in continuing conversations like this in the future.² He said that the five-year benchmark affords people a much more real discussion about what happened. ³Through the lens of experience, it makes people skeptical about how effectively 9/11 was managed and how to deal with this in the future,² he said after the discussion.
³What makes America great is we take risks in the face of fear,² he added. ³That¹s a virtue this country needs back.²
Comments about this story? RKalina@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 282.
