“Our world has changed yet again,” I remember a reporter saying as I watched live coverage of the Boston Marathon terror attack on April 15. Once again, the American way of life has been altered due to a senseless act of violence. For a brief moment, I wondered if this would be the 9/11 of the new generation.
Despite the grief, fear and uncertainty that inevitably follow a tragedy like this, there was something else that haunted me: this happened in America.
There are countries in the world where suicide bombs, car bombs and landmines detonate on a near weekly basis. Going to the market is as risky as walking into a war zone – it is a war zone. This happens in torn countries like Pakistan and Iraq, countries that have been ripped apart by ethnic or religious differences and military takeovers.
For years, I could only imagine the pain and fear that must come with living with that daily threat; now, however, the concept seems more real, more immediate.
The United States has had one hell of a year. No one needs reminding of the string of shootings and stabbings that seem to have proliferated since James Holmes opened fire on an Aurora, Colorado movie theater last summer. Suddenly our communities seem less safe, even as we push the events to the back of our minds and continue our lives.
I’m not saying this will become the norm, though I do feel as though we should be prepared for whatever catastrophe is thrown at us next. Our world has changed because our perspective has changed. The closer events are, the more real they seem. I’m thankful that this has changed my perspective because it means that it isn’t a normal part of my life.
I certainly won’t take the news of another car bombing or suicide bombing in another country in passing anymore. Just because these things happen half a world away doesn’t make them any less real. Nor does it make the pain they cause any less real.
The next time I see a tweet from the Associated Press announcing an explosion in Pakistan that killed four and injured 30 more, I won’t just keep scrolling – I’ll see the faces of the Boston Marathon victims, killed and wounded, and recognize that someone, somewhere, just lost their Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu or Krystal Campbell.
Even in the events following the Boston Marathon bombing, it appears that we have entered into a brave new world. On April 16, the screening office of Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker discovered a letter laced with ricin, a potentially lethal poison. On April 17, a letter of the same nature was sent to President Barack Obama, a Texas fertilizer plant exploded, and a Boston federal courthouse was evacuated due to a bomb threat.
However, it is my firm belief that, despite how broken and messed up the world seems to be, the impervious hope of the many will crush the evil of the few. In the mean time, we must understand that our paradigm is shifting.
Our world is changing and we must be ready to combat the consequence of change with caring and compassion – the water to the fires of fear.
Maddie Mayhew is the Editor in Chief – Online for The Spartan Speaks.
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