I was a war baby. Mum and Dad were married in England at the end of World War II. A year or so later I came into the world. I heard a lot about war during my childhood, though in retrospect it was heavily sanitized versions of what happened. I do remember very clearly hearing my mother describe the buzz bomb attacks on London. I gasped at the tale of Dad's rear gunner dying in his arms, the victim of a German fighter plane's gun.
I was in grade school the next time I focused on war. That was during the cold war crisis in the early 1960's. Air raid sirens became part of the weekly routine in Montreal. I prayed a lot that all this scary stuff would go away.
Then as a teen I actually heard and saw the horrific devastation wrought by the Quebec terrorists who were bombing post office collection boxes to make their point about political change in that troubled province. The crumpled body of an innocent postman is seared in my memory forever.
Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Bosnian War and countless other small wars traipsed across my consciousness as I moved from adolescence to adulthood. None of it made any sense to me then, nor does it now. I knew people who had served and died in those conflicts. I knew their widows and children.
Living With Terrorism
In 2001 the 9/11 attacks hit much closer to home. How safe can we be if these crazed people can exploit our open society's vulnerabilities? As parents and teachers we have an obligation to put terrorism into perspective. Young children have no sense of perspective and cannot analyze war as we adults can. Like talking about sex, we must give out simple facts when the questions are asked. We must patiently explain why war happens and what the possible outcomes might be.
Young teenagers can probe and analyze events and the root causes. Juniors and seniors need to understand that freedom is not free. It requires constant vigilance, nurturing and maintenance. They need to understand that millions of people in other countries do not understand the American reasons for invading Iraq. They need to have a solid understanding of other cultures besides our own. They need to understand why terrorism occurs.
The Causes Of Terrorism
What are the causes of terrorism? The answers are elusive. On the other hand terrorism seems to run riot in places where there is no hope. It seems to thrive in societies which have broken down to the point where ordinary citizens decide to take the law into their own hands.
Hopelessness
A society where suffering is widespread and severe seems to be the ideal breeding ground for terrorism. Why? Because suffering creates hopelessness. When hopelessness takes hold, the sufferers are easy marks for leaders who have terrorist or other radical agendas. History is full of examples including Hitler and the Nazis, Lenin and the Bolsheviks, Osama Bin Laden and Al-Quaeda.
Terrorist Leaders
History offers many examples of charismatic individuals who have been able to control entire populations to achieve their own personal goals. In recent times Hitler, Mussolini, Milosevic, Mao Tse-Tung, Osama Bin Laden and many others have inflicted incredible pain and suffering on their peoples all the while believing totally in the correctness of their mission. Those missions were political and religious, sometimes blended to the point where it is difficult to tell exactly which. That is essentially why the causes of terrorism are so hard to specify and determine. It is a combination of many influences and ideas.
Our children need to understand the root causes of terrorism and what can be done to eradicate them. They need to know that they can be a powerful force for change in the world. That is why initiatives such as the National Association of Independent Schools' Global Education Summit are so valuable. Promoting understanding is one of the long term remedies for terrorism. Teachers who attend conferences like this come back to enrich and infuse their school communities with new ideas, new techniques and new messages of hope.
