Shock, disbelief, uncertainty, anger and dismay only begin to describe the emotions that took over Tuesday as we learned more about the terrorist attacks that gripped the nation’s capital, New York and Pennsylvania.
A co-worker put it best when she said she simply had no words for this.
It’s the student newspaper’s job to inform the community about events that affect the campus. We pooled our resources to achieve that goal in this edition of the Daily Lobo.
It’s also the newspaper’s job to be a strong voice on campus, but we have been hard-pressed to generate any pearls of wisdom that can make sense of Tuesday’s attacks.
Those who observe even a cursory following of foreign affairs always knew something like this could happen, but we just pushed such thoughts out of our minds. Images from Somerset County, New York City and Washington, D.C., yesterday proved to be the worst kind of wake up call.
The dust is finally settling and outside of donating blood and money, which are both sorely needed, we are left asking where do we go from here.
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As much as we feel intense anger and would like to take equivalent action against those who initiated this crime, it is important remember the difference between justice and retribution. Justice would include a full investigation of the crime and what bought us to this point, while retribution would involve indiscriminate persecution of those we assume are associated with the crime.
The cries to bomb the Middle East and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment are running at an all-time high. We should not forget the lessons of the past and what harm such irrational responses can do to our country.
No one has any real answers yet, but perhaps we can learn our greatest lessons from our shock and loss for words.
While we expect swift action investigating this crime by our nation’s leaders, we also should expect reflection about what brought us to this point.
Beyond the breakdown in U.S. intelligence and security measures, we have positioned ourselves as an isolationist country whose average citizens care more about watching “Survivor” or the latest edition of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” than anything that goes on in the rest of the world.
Never have we been given a clearer signal that George Washington was off the mark in his farewell address when he urged this country to focus exclusively on itself.
Iliana Lim¢n,
Editor in chief
