Code Orange Babies

On the heels of 9/11/09 I reflect on life pre September 11, 2001. This is prompted mainly by the fact that most of my students were between 4-6 years old when 9/11 happened. They. Have. No. Idea. About. Life. Pre. Terrorism.

And that is sad.

My students are code orange babies. They know nothing about taking a full bottle of shampoo onto an airplane. They have no concept of keeping one's shoes on in order to fly. They cannot visualize the emotional security one gets from having one's family escort a flier to the gate of and airplane and wave excitedly from the glass. They don't know life before CIA wire taps, Patriot Acts, Guantanamo Bay, Osama bin Ladin, or even iPods.

They are reflective of a new generation.

And, what is most concerning to me is that these kids are products of fear. Today's discussion did not center around the "if" possibility of another terrorist attack, but the certanity they feel that the "where" will occur on the Strip, putting their lives in imminent danger. They fear terrorist attacks. They fear H1N1. They fear anthrax. They fear.

How did we get here? I remember the big fear when I was in 8th grade was AIDS. Still a relatively new disease, we learned about the immune deficiency disease in science. But, even with that, one felt safe enough if one did not have a blood transfusion, share needles, have unprotected sex, sit on a toilet seat, kiss an infected person, share a straw or, hell, even ride on the same bus. Eventually, many of those fears were assuaged as we learned more about the disease. We felt safer in regard to HIV because we knew what it was and, pretty much, how not to get infected.

Eight years after 9/11, we feel no safer. If anything, we have adopted more fear. See someone wearing a hijab? Cross the street and quicken your pace. Is an A-Rab flying on your plane? Secretly talk to the stewardess about the "safety" of the aircraft. Hear Arabic spoken amongst friends in a crowded market? Listen carefully and tell the first officer you see. Get an odd package in the mail? Take it to the lab to be tested. The fear is so deeply ingrained in us it has altered our emotional DNA. We don't even realize that we're afraid most of the time--and that is the scariest part of all. Slowly, but surely, we are becoming the nation Orwell forsaw in 1984 and Huxley warned against in Brave New World.

Abnormal has become the new normal.

Our children are growing up in a culture dominated by fear. And I don't know how to make them feel safe.