Standing Tall: In retrospect
Ground zero isn’t just a location in Manhattan.
Ground zero is located in our own hearts, where we have begun to wrestle with larger issues: questions abut the human potential for evil, questions about how cultures could collide so violently, questions about how lives could be lost so quickly, questions abut how a nation – how any individual – could recover fully.
For many people, recovery has meant a new dialogue. Value systems of patriotism, once thought pass̩ and unsophisticated, suddenly became honorable and redemptive. Studies conducted in the last year cite a rise in incidents of simple kindness and courtesy, a rebirth of volunteerism, a re-evaluation of the importance of family, a new appreciation that it is the simplest of human connections that bind us Рa smile, a touch, a courtesy Рeven if we do not know one another.
Tragedy often produces insight. And insight produces action. If the events of Sept. 11 have taught us anything, it is the importance of taking action.
Our students at Utah State University acted. They were the front-line assistance for the Red Cross in the weeks following Sept. 11. They donated blood, assisted in answering phones, directed referrals, collected disaster-relief supplies, served as volunteer first-aid and emergency-relief instructors and went door to door raising money to send to the Red Cross to help the victims. A total of $10,000 was raised.
The university itself is acting. Sept. 11 has taught us we cannot afford to misunderstand other peoples. We have proposals to increase our international faculty, staff and student populations, as well as to provide educational opportunities to qualified Hispanic and Native American students. Both groups have been historically under-represented in our ranks.
We must promote cross-cultural understanding. We must appreciate that our security depends on what we know of others, not just what they think they know of us. We must teach the lesson that the world is a fearful place when we don’t have the knowledge to conquer that fear. We must remember, in the words of Edmund Burke, “For evil to triumph, good people must fail to act.”