There is this popular idea about young people in crowds, some conception that when we get together and get excited there will be bruises and broken bones, destroyed property and cars turned over. But last night, thousands of college students marched peacefully through the streets towards Boston Common. Their worst offense was their voice–chants of “USA, USA” filled the air as they moved down usually-quiet streets.
The gathering was a celebration of patriotism, but the exact reasons behind it are less clear. The most obvious pretense was the death of Osama Bin Laden, leader of Al-Quaeda. Once they reached the Commons, all gathered around the gazebo and chanted “fuck Bin Laden” over and over.
The reasons for the rally looked like bloodlust, and plenty were cynical. If we celebrated the death of our enemies, what separated us from them? Others felt that it was just a disorganized group of students looking for answers, looking to put off going to bed, or looking for a reason to party on a Sunday night.
But the rally didn’t feel like any party I’d ever been to. The Quad editorial staff went directly following the launch of Issue 14, and we were surprised at the atmosphere we found. “Everyone was happy and peaceful. People took turns being at the front of the crowd, and everyone was helping one another,” said Quad copy-editor Brittney McNamara.
No one seemed angry, and no one pushed. We made our way to the front of the crowd effortlessly. We said, “excuse us,” and people did. The atmosphere of calm made us doubt that this was really nothing more than a celebration of vengeance realized. “The rally at the common wasn’t about violence or even Osama’s death, though it was the spark,” Quad campus editor Tara Jayakar said. “It was about hope, about surviving. And that sentiment was so powerful it was almost tangible.”
Staff writer Kristin Toussaint agreed. “I don’t think it was a celebration of someone’s death but more a recognition of an American accomplishment and a historic moment for our generation.”
And it was indeed a historic moment for our generation.
Most of the people present were college students, and most of us were in elementary or middle school on 9/11. It was during our formative years that we learned about our vulnerability. Since then, it seems, we have had reasons to fear and to worry. We’ve been anxious of invasion at our airports, at the hands of foreign threat and from the hands of TSA agents. We’ve been hit with hurricanes and watched helplessly as an oil spill destroyed an ecosystem. And lately, we have been told that the future brings us more reasons to worry: there is the national debt, there’s the weak job market into which we will soon graduate, there are the issues of climate change and a the increasing gap between the rich and poor and the increasing gap between political factions.
We have been given reasons to be cynical, and the rally represented a brief departure from that. We were not celebrating the death of an enemy. We were celebrating because, ten years later, after a childhood spent being told that our futures looked bleak, we have something to celebrate about.
Additional reporting by Amalie Stiedley, Kristine Toussaint, Paul Squire, Joel Kahn, Tara Jayakar, and Brittney McNamara.
Not sure my take on the rally is fairly represented here, or maybe even in the piece I wrote. While I certainly noticed quite a few revelers out to enjoy the rally just as a party (and perhaps I put too much emphasis on this because that was the sense reflected in the photos and video I managed to grab), overall I was struck by the number of people who seemed to be there by sheer force of herd motive. Many looked unsure as to how to react and were more than willing to be lead in contradictory or even non-sensical chants. It was this surrender to collective fervor that came off as particularly eerie, perhaps because I was unable to put myself into it.
Is it too much to expect you to look at the hundreds of thousands killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Yemen, in the name of this war on terrot? Could you please begin to take responsibility for your country’s use of torture, Guantanamo, predator drones and military occupations to pursue empire? Or whatever…be proud of the atrocities that most of the world see as immoral and illegitimate and serve as the recruiting tools for the fanatics on the other side.