The Piedmont Highlander

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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Keep talking about terrorism

Keep+talking+about+terrorism

Friday, November 13.  I was sitting in my seventh period class when I got the notification about the bombings in Paris.  My phone buzzed, and I quickly shut it off, unaware of what had just happened.  It wasn’t until later, when I actually looked at the screen, that I found out what had happened: bombings outside a soccer game, shootings in the streets, hostages at a concert hall. I was shocked. For a minute it didn’t seem real. How could something like this happen? I knew that as soon as I turned on the TV, all I would see would be images of crowded streets and police amongst anguished faces.

That weekend, it was impossible to escape what had happened. Every news source contained images of a country in turmoil and candle light memorials across the globe. On Facebook, people put filters on their profile picture in the colors of the French flag. Images of the Eiffel Tower were trending on every social media site.

The next Monday in APUSH, we talked about the attacks and we watched an episode of West Wing that covered the idea of terrorism. Social studies teacher Mark Cowherd told us that he wanted us to be aware of what was going on and to get a different perspective than those on the news.  But other than that, I did not hear any other mention of Paris in class until Journalism later that week

IMG_0081The discussion we had was a long and complicated debate on whether or not we should even talk about this in the school paper (obviously we are). Some said that it was not our job to report on world events because we are not an international newspaper, but in a town like Piedmont, many students have visited Paris and know people who live in France.

Sure, it might not be our school papers job to report on something that happened thousands of miles away, but our jobs to inform students on what is going on in our lives, and this is a major event. I think that it is important that we cover things that affect our lives in any way.

It is indescribable the pain and horror that the people of Paris and the rest of France have experienced over the past few weeks. These attacks are to France as 9/11 was to the United States. And just like 9/11, the world will not be that same afterwards.

When I visited Europe in July, passing over borders was simple. Most passports were not even stamped. After this attack, I do not think we will be able to cross a European border with such ease.

Even now, it is still so hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that any human being could commit such an act of hatred towards others.  The night that it happened, I spoke with a close friends of mine whose boyfriend lives in France, and she was so worried about him that she was in tears.  Though he doesn’t live anywhere near Paris, the entire country was in a state of chaos. The borders had been shut down, the police were conducting raids, and the fear of another attack was prominent.

President Obama called the atrocity in Paris “an attack on all humanity.”  I agree, because the Paris attack was more than terrorism.  It is an event that is already changing how countries across the globe interact and is helping distrust towards strangers grow with every day.  The last thing we need to do is cut off interaction with other human beings, by closing borders and limiting those who can cross them.

The more we talk about issues like this with our friends, teachers and family the more opportunity we have to educate ourselves and each other on

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