Motivations of Young Americans

The date September 11, 2001 was not just the beginning of the War on Terror. It also was the beginning of changing allegiances between nation governments. It was the beginning of a continuing debate of how America should react to changes in everything from international travel, diplomatic/military force, and wiretaps. All these changes were immediate or at minimum quickly realized, relative to history.

The economic effects of 9/11 were also nearly immediate. Excaserbated by an already faltering economy in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2000, the terrorists attacks in New York added force to the brake pedal of quickly falling indicators.

As country singer, Alan Jackson, wrote in his song “Where were you…” some folks prayed, others cried, spent time with their families or went out to buy a gun, in an effort to protect what they could… their family. Many Americans began making decisions based on instinct… the ‘fight or flight’ reaction when someone is scared and may not know exactly what to do.

The US Congress approved the Patriot Act giving far reaching access to methods of finding and collecting terrorists, their cells, information and communication. This act was questioned by those who want to defend civil liberties.

The media has sifted through all which was happening from September 11 through today. They have been reporting on all the channels and newspapers; consumer sentiment, public opinion, decisions by those with authority, the ebb and flow of supposed anti-Americanism and patriotism. More recently the media has tried to make sense of violent protests of muslims 8k miles away due to the Dutch Newspaper Cartoon. As is their job, the media tries to cover it all. Yet, in their quest to cover ‘it all’ there have surely been uncountable newsworthy stories missed. Some of the stories are not glamorous. For this reason the media may have voluntarily passed many of these “missed” stories.

The scoop proposed is the growing body of young Americans who began a trend on September 11, 2001. This author believes this trend is of an age group which could be ages 10-27 on September 11, 2001. This age group is those spanning elementary school students through recent college graduates. The trend is for an explosion of interest and action, inspired by the attacks. These students were scared and inspired by the same event all Americans and others world wide. These young Americans may have no different a feeling or compelling drive then all other Americans. This age group of Americans have youth on their side. Their age is the very reason why they can and will change the path of their lives.

They may be further inspired by subsequent events such as the War in Afghanistan and Iraq and continued War on Terror. They are inspired to take up education and set themselves on a path for future protection of their homeland.

These events inspired young Americans to take up careers in public service. Be it local law enforcement branches, border patrol, military enlistment/Officer Candidates, politics, intelligence and Homeland Security. Many made their decision right away. A few made the career switch almost immediately (those out of school). Others who may have still been in school, changed their study focus. While the youngest of children, who were able to understand what was happening, watched planes hit the World Trade Center towers. They began picking up their cowboy guns. Instead of pretending to shoot Indians of the old west, they began to shoot imaginary terrorists.

During my grandfathers younger days, when fighting in New Guinea during WWII, the enemy children and parents feared were German and Japanese attackers. Then it became the communists and North Vietnamese. Then in 1991, Iraq and Saddam Hussein took their turn as the evil men, which children were shooting with their plastic cowboy guns. Now it is Al-Qaeda.

This quiet ground swell of inspired young Americans will come to fruition over the course of the next 10 or 15 years. As positions of defending our nation are increased in private, public and military sectors, I propose it will not nearly keep pace with demand for these positions by graduating high school seniors enlisting in the military, graduating college students moving into intelligence and current career folks molding their own futures for a career change into an “inspired” field.

This means two things, our security may continue to improve and competition for these positions will likely increase. The brightest or most capable will fill these roles in defending our nation. If this is true, our future security will improve directly proportional to the increased number of applicants for these fields. I suppose one could find answers by asking for data of the Homeland Security, Human Resources Department in the year 2020.