Living In USA

The United States of the early twenty-first century faces serious issues. The end of the Cold War has left us with the obligation to seek out a new paradigm. If you make this country your home, even for just a few years, they will become your issues are well.

The Effect of September 11, 2001
For many Americans, perhaps for most of us, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, "changed everything." On that day, foreigners attacked and killed thousands of civilians in our country. Certain aspects of that day are likely to continue to influence our political and social outlook for many years to come. We naively believed that such a large-scale attack was not possible here. We also believed that some people hate us solely because we are Americans. The hijackers all legally entered our country and lived among us, some of them for years.

The fact that we in the United States have lost our innocence is resonating throughout our geopolitical world. Fear is driving our politics, and to some degree, the rest of our lives as well. Most Americans have a great deal of difficulty understanding how one person can hate another because of his or her nationality. After all, we see ourselves as individuals first, and only then as Americans. And as Americans, we believe that while not perfect, we are always well-intentioned. Perhaps most of all, many Americans were shocked that the hijackers entered the country perfectly legally. What many of us found the hardest to believe is that anyone could live among us — some of them for years — and still hate us so much. After all, aren't we a friendly people? Isn't this the land of opportunity? We wonder, "Couldn't they see that for all our corporate scandals and foreign policy mistakes, we really mean well?"

Fear and doubt, then, are driving our national agenda. There is a political voice in this country that asks whether 9/11 is at least partly a result of a country that has gone soft, weak, and too willing to let anyone into this country. Attempts to restrict immigration and to punish those who immigrate illegally are underway. There are, sadly, many Americans who feel that our government is justified in considering all Arabs and Muslims a threat. Juxtaposed to this, Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, spurred partly by the tremendous curiosity many Americans feel about the religion, a curiosity that turns into respect and admiration for a faith practiced by a quarter of the world's population.

Threats to our civil liberties are being accepted on a daily basis, despite the warning, often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, "Those who would sacrifice their essential liberties for a little safety will soon have neither." Government officials continue to appear with disturbing regularity to announce some new vague threat to our lives. Our color-coded Terror Alert System blinks from yellow to orange and back again, despite the fact that almost no one knows what it means.

Not all of the effects of 9/11 are based on fear and doubt, however. A significant segment of society has begun a process of self-reflection to a degree not seen before. Many people are asking themselves questions such as, what policies are we, as a nation, engaged in that could breed such hatred? What liberties are we willing to forgo in order to feel safer and more secure, and which ones are we not willing to give up? And our strong sense of individualism means that most of us are willing, even eager, to assess each individual we meet on his or her own characteristics.