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The Behrend Beacon
The New Patriotism:
national pride come
They've grown up stating the Pledge of Allegiance by rote, chatting their way through "The Star-Spangled Banner" at football games. Some
rolled their eyes as Old Glory flew on national holidays, memorized dates that meant nothing more to them than a good grade on a history test.
by Leslie Garcia
ljle Dallas Morning News
Their generations have been branded X
and Y, scorned a bit for their sense of en
titlement, perhaps for their lack of appre
ciation for freedom.
But for many, all that changed Sept. 11.
These young people have wept tears that
appeared out of nowhere, combed the city
tbr flags they once pooh-poohed others for
flying. They've listened - really listened -
tb the words of our national anthem and
kiod Bless America," and begun singing
along. Then they've cried some more.
And nobody's caught more off guard
at their response than that generation them
selves.
" Before. I used to shrug otipatriotism, -
says Loren Ninimandrad, a 17-year-old
freshman at the University of Texas at
Dallas. "1 felt no bond with my country.
Rumsfeld meets with Saudis on first stop of tour to reassure allies
by Martin Merzer
and Sudarsan Raghavan
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, beginning
a whirlwind tour of what soon could become the
front lines of a war against terrorism, acknowl
edged Wednesday that some key allies in the Mus
lim world are worried about the consequences of
a military strike against terrorists.
"We had a very substantive and interesting and
thoughtful discussion about the nature of the prob
lem and the complexities of the problem. and the
importance of dealing with it in a way that recog
nizes secondary effects that could occur, -
Rumsfeld said after meeting in Saudi Arabia with
King Fand, Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince
Sultan, the defense minister.
The four nations on his itinerary - Saudi Arabia,
Oman, Egypt and Uzbekistan - are crucial to
Washington's campaign to seize suspected terror
ist leader Osama bin Laden, dismantle his al-Qaida
network and punish his protectors in Afghanistan.
According to a senior administration official in
volved in planning the military operation,
Uzbekistan late Wednesday removed one obstacle
by agreeing to allow American combat troops to
use bases on its territory. Although some minor
issues must be settled when Rumsfeld visits on
Friday, Air Force search-and-rescue crews and
about 1,000 soldiers from the Army's 10th Moun
tain Division will be deployed in the former So
viet republic on Afghanistan's northern border,
said the official, who asked not to be named.
But some Muslim leaders, even those friendly
to the United States, fear a violent reaction from
Their citizens, and have told American officials that
they cannot fully back a U.S.-led military strike.
To fortify the home front, President Bush trav
eled to New York and Secretary of State Colin
Powell invited the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee to lunch in Washington.
The president reassured business leaders that the
economy would rebound and called upon Congress
to spend up to $75 billion more to help make that
'happen. He visited firefighters who labored in the
Now I'm glad 1 live here. Someone has
threatened it, and that makes me angry. -
She did what kw her would ha been
unthinkable two weeks earlier: She bought
a T-shirt with "The Star-Spangled Ban
ner. on it. When she and her Fiends siren
Oft their "instant messages" on the com
puter, they leave "God Bless America - on
the screen. They fill their e-mails with
prayers and quotes from "Chicken Soup
for the Teen-Age Soul."
Nirumandrad proudly wears the flag
lapel pin her father, a native of Iran and a
naturalized U.S. citizen, brought home.
Before this, when he'd tell her she needed
to show respect for the United States. "I'd
be like, 'This country isn't so weal.''' she
"Maybe it was general teen-age c)iii
cism," she says. "I don't know what made
me like that. But it's !lone now: it's deli-
nitely gone
rubble ()I' the World Trade Center. He comforted
schoolchildren shaken by the Sept. 11 terrorist assault,
adding teachers to the growing roster of American he-
"You know why?' the president asked the kids in
Debra Nelson's first-grade class at P.S. 130 on Baxter
Street in Lower Manhattan.
"Because they love you. And if you've got any wor
ries about what took place at the World Trade Center,
they can help y0u.... They want to make sure you un
derstand what went on."
During his visit, Bush wrote this on a large piece of
poster paper in Room 204:
'I love America because I love freedom.'
Still, America remained jittery, and Greyhound Lines
suspended bus service nationwide for several hours
Wednesday after a passenger slit a driver's throat, caus
ing a wreck in Tennessee that killed six people, in
cluding the assailant, and injured 35.
Authorities said the male attacker carried a Croatian
passport and wielded a sharp instrument that resembled
the box cutters used by the terrorists who hijacked four
jetliners Sept. 11 and ultimately killed nearly 6,000
people. Still, officials said, Wednesday's senseless act
did not appear to be related to the earlier atrocities.
En route to the Middle East, Rumsfeld acknowledged
that regional sensitivities stood on high alert and care
ful diplomacy would be required.
"We're not going to be making requests of the Saudi
Arabian government," Rumsfeld said. "What we in
tend to do there is . . . visit with them about the fact
that our interest is to create a set of conditions so we
can engage in a sustained effort against terrorist net-
works."
Does he know the location of bin Laden, accused of
sponsoring the Sept. I I attacks?
"I have a handle, but I don't have (map) coordinates."
Is action against the Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban
regime inevitable'?
"1 guess time will tell."
He said military intelligence would prove crucial to
the effort, and that's what he hoped to encourage dur-
ing the trip
"It's not going to be a cruise missile or a bomber
that's going to he the determining factor," Rumsfeld
said "It's going to he a scrap of information from some
\ ticti fi
4
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I r e )
•44:0w era mow
Friday, October 5, 2001
In her lifetime, Tricia Nichols. 30. has
cried twice heal - Me the national anthem.
The hist time was when she was IO and
visiting London. The second was 14 years
later. driving to Work on Sept. 12.
" The emotions caught me by surprise...
says Nichols, a media planner with I.atinch
Partnership. "I hadn't related to the flag
since I'd been overseas.'.
She took it for granted, she Yays. Now
she seeks it out - checking cars and yards
in hopes of seeing the symbol that hinds
her with fellow Americans.
"When I see it,
I proud," SaVS
Nichols. who made her own patriotic rib
bon when her grocery store ran out of its
giveaways. "It's something I never would
have thought to look tor. It's hecome like
looking for Christmas lights on houses in
)ecenther .
She'd grown up with what she calls a
texthooklike appreciation - ()I freedom.
Generation's feelings of
as a surprise
The patriotism she experienced was
"learned, - based on what she'd been told,
on what she'd memorized about battles
finight and won. It meant. in a very vague
sense. a free country and liberties not
shared by people in oilier parts of the
The Gulf War happened during her life
time, but it took place a world away. Then,
on Sept. 11, patriotism - which had never
before been personified for her- suddenly
had thousands of faces. •
"Not until now did I actually understand
it could go away. - says Nichols. "I never
understood that.''
She knew her grandfather had served
in photo intelligence during World War 11,
hut that was so long ago. He'd never re
ally talked much about his military ser
vice. Then, much to her surprise, he called
her after that Tuesday tragedy.
"He asked if I was holding up OK,"
person in sonic country that's been repressed by a
dictatorial regime."
In a related development, U.S. intelligence offi
cials involved in planning covert operations in Af
ghanistan said they believe the administration's
campaign to encourage Afghan military and tribal
leaders to abandon the Taliban has begun to bear
fruit.
The officials, who agreed to speak only on con
dition of anonymity, said that some Afghan mili
tary officers who aren't members of the Taliban
have contacted Afghan opposition figures and in
dicated that they may be willing to defect.
The opposition leaders, who have been meeting
with American officials, are telling the Afghans
that the country's military bases would be among
the first targets of U.S.-led air attacks, which could
begin at any time.
The U.S. officials also said that some Pakistani
military and intelligence officers who have close
ties to the Afghan military are encouraging their
Afghan counterparts to defect and may make ar
rangements for defecting Afghan pilots to fly their
aircraft, all aging Soviet-made models, to Paki
stan.
"Most of the leadership of the Afghan military,
especially the air force, are not Taliban but pro
fessional military," one official said. "All of them
may not be willing to stand and fight for bin
Laden."
In fact, one official said, a recent CIA analysis
suggested that many of Afghanistan's 700 tribal
leaders might be induced to abandon the Taliban,
and that only the Taliban leader, Mullah
Mohammed Omar, and a few thousand hard-core
followers might be willing to fight to the death
beside bin Laden.
The reports could not be independently con
firmed, and U.S. officials have an obvious inter
est in promoting or exaggerating such reports as
part of their campaign to demoralize the Taliban
and isolate bin Laden and his protectors.
Nevertheless, one official suggested, even mod
est success at encouraging defections could delay
the start of any military action, because a U.S. at
tack might rally Afghans behind the Taliban.
Nichols says. "He was concerned whether
I was scared. It was a very raw conversa
tion. He wanted to let me know he was
there and I could talk to him. 1 never
thought we'd have something that would
happen in both our lives ... something of
this magnitude to share."
"We're very close. He said, '1 know
you've never seen anything like this and I
never thought we'd go through it aga i n.
The tragedy has made Jaundrea Clay,
21, a senior at Southern Methodist Uni
versity, appreciate people who served their
country decades before she was even born.
"Before, we (as a generation) would just
dismiss veterans, older people," Clay says.
"Then I saw a veteran at the grocery store
and I just had to go speak to him. I just
said, `Hello, how are you doing'?' He
seemed surprised. The things he fought
for in his young lifetime are the things that
are threatened now. We take so much for
granted.
"We've been going through Ilk and
think we're invincible. But people died in
a second (in New York, Pennsylvania and
Washington, D.C.). We have to do more."
It's almost lunchtime midweek at
SMU's Hughes-Trigg Student Center. Stu
dents gather in groups to talk or seek se
cluded corners to study. A huge yellow
banner hangs on one wall, covered with
handwritten messages to families of vic
tims and rescue workers.
"People call us Generation X, say we
don't do anything good," Clay says. "But
we're making donations, putting up these
banners. We initiated it on our own, not a
faculty member. We came together."
Melissa Knowles, a 19-year-old SMU
sophomore from Plano, Texas, echoes
those sentiments.
KRT PHOTO
"This has not only renewed a sense of
patriotism - especially for Generation X.
But we really are coming together, show
ing we're not lazy and that we can take
part in something bigger than ourselves, -
she says.
An SMU family gave football players
bags filled with patriotic stickers and pins.
Vie Viloria, 19, put one of the flag decals
on his beloved truck.
"Before this happened. I wouldn't have
put a flag sticker on my truck, or anything
else," he says. "Now I'm proud to have it
on there."
At the University of Georgia, Betty Jean
Craige, director of the Center for I Iwnani
ties and Arts, has been encouraged by stu
dents' creation of a memorial with flow
ers, candles, letters.
Notable quotables
"It was spontaneous, a statement of
American solidarity and resolve. It was a
moving experience. This has been a day
none of us will forget. A horrible day."
-U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who
sang "God Bless America" on the Capitol
steps with nearly 100 other lawmakers af-
ter the attacks on the Pentagon and World
Trade Center, in People magazine
"I can't live in a world without love is a
sentiment that's as true in crisis as it is in
normal times. It's a totally pro-love senti-
ment and could only be helpful right now."
-Peter Asher; of Peter and Gordon, whose
song "A World Without Love" was on the
Ff 150
behrcolls@aol.com
Young people have come together as a
result of the tragedy, she says. In addition,
events of recent weeks will help young
people recognize the United States' role
in a global society.
"This will he a defining moment in
terms of understanding of the world be
ing a dangerous place," says Craige, au
thor of "American Patriotism in a Global
Society" (SONY Press; $17.95).
"This has subdued this generation."
His students haven't experienced a war
or an economic depression. says Thomas
JodzioN icz, history department chairman
at the University of Dallas. They question
how such horror can happen here.
?They've felt so sate in a sense ...- he
says. "With our technology, we believe
we're in charge ... what arc they used to.
The computer going, the TV. We set up a
comfOrtable little place for ourselves. This
is uncomfortable. All their gadgets aren't
going to protect them.-
In class a week after the terrorist attacks.
he spoke to them about their self-image
being attacked. "our sense of being per
fect, a city on a
"I'm not suggesting they have no val-
Lies, hut this is so outside the box,"
Jodziewicz says. "They've responded
with blood, money, prayer vigils, and I find
it marvelous."
Still, as patriotic as some young people
arc feeling, others can't get into the spirit.
At l 111), Netreia McNulty, who consid
ers herself compassionate, is perplexed at
her lack of patriotism.
"When things like this happen, I feel
had for the people, - she says, "hut that
doesn't make me more for America. I
haven't been wearing red, white and blue
stickers. God bless the victims. not God
bless America.-
Across the country, pockets of young
people have protested the war on tenor
ism. Singing "Give Peace a Chance,"
sonic students at Oregon's Lewis & Clark
College formed a human peace symbol.
At 1 larvard Univeisity, students carried a
sign proclaiming, ''War Is Also Terror
ism.-
But for 24-year-old Josh Ihdc of Dal
las, war means doing his patriotic duty.
"lo speak to MC Six months ago of the
draft. I'd have said I'd do anything to avoid
it, - says Ihde, who works for an account
ing firm. "After (the attacks), if that's what
I have to do to secure freedom fur genera
tions to conic, I'd do it.''
that Cl