December 7, 1941. November 22, 1963. January 28, 1986. These are dates that defined the world for their respective generations.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 must now be added to the list. Yesterday’s massacre will change the way the people of this country think, forever.
As Tuesday’s horrible events unfolded, members of our campus community displayed everything from hopeless frustration, to grassroots heroism, to ignorant cruelty. We commend the efforts of those like Sigma Alpha Epsilon, the Chapel and Cultural Center, and the American Red Cross who have stepped up to help the campus cope with the tragedy and actively participate in relief efforts. But at the same time we deplore the reports that hate-mongering is spreading across RPI like a cancer.
RPI’s campus is diverse. We have community members of all races, religions, and ethnic descents. While news reports have focused on speculations that the terrorists may have been Middle Eastern in origin, this does not mean that those on our campus who share the same heritage deserve to be insulted, slandered, accused, threatened, or—worst of all— physically harmed.
Yesterday, those very people who the day before were our classmates, roommates, and colleagues had to look over their shoulders in panic and, in some cases, leave campus because the color of their skin and their ethnicity painted them as targets for blame by thoughtless individuals who had knee-jerk reactions based on ignorance.
There are terrible people who have committed terrible atrocities against America, and they deserve swift and severe punishment. However, our friends, neighbors, and colleagues are not these people.
For those of you who have already directed your feelings of helplessness and anger into lashing out and propagating divisive stereotypes, we implore you to stop and think about what you are doing. No one here at RPI deserves to live in dread. Even if you simply utter thoughtless comments about whom we should bomb and how far back into history we should bomb them, you perpetuate that cancer of fear. Careless words in times of such raw emotion quickly escalate into words of hate.
There are difficult times ahead for all of us. No matter what our ethnicity, every man and woman in America must face the threats that lurk beyond our borders. None of us should have to worry about threats from within as well.
