The loss of a dream

Ten years ago, the world experienced a profound loss... not just the United States, the entire world. The world watched while the United States, its citizenry unified as one in a way that was both solemn and horrifying, lost its innocence as a nation. That morning, ten years ago today, was etched permanently in the memories of every American who was born before 1990. I think, indeed, that the entire day became a flashbulb burned into our minds.

It was the world, as a whole, though, that lost something so much greater than buildings, safety, or even lives. On September 11th, 2001, the world lost the hope of something amazing. It lost the hope of a future beyond the rivalries that have divided the people across the globe, in one way or another, for so long.

For the entire twentieth century, the world had become a progressively smaller place. Borders, distance, language... they had all been conquered, making of the world a single community. And from that was finally coming the hope for a people beyond the antiquated disputes that had long led us down divergent paths. Then a small group of men, firm believers each in the antiquated ideas that men are not equal, and that the world should rightly be divided and that conflict is the will of some God, ripped that away from us.

Since that time, we, as a world, have been struggling to find ourselves. We have not yet found our way back to that hope. We have been forced to detour, to fight... not for a nation or a leader, but for an ideal. Fight to overcome that which stole that hope that took so long for humanity to build, but only hours to destroy.

I believe, though, that while the hope that once united the world, which was mostly unnoticed until it was gone, may be lost, a piece of it still lives on in many people. It lives on in me. It lives on in my friends. So today, on the tenth anniversary of the attacks that stole the innocence of a nation and the hopes of a better world, let us take a moment to foster that spark of hope in each of us. Let us hope that freedom, and a chance at a future where people truly are on the path of unity, will once again alight upon this world, and that ignorance and fear will finally be something for children to study as history, rather than a harsh reality of life.

In closing, I give you, appropriately enough, the motto of the state of South Carolina: "dum spiro, spero." While I breathe, I hope. Indeed, let us all live that belief.