America's greatest responsibility

As time passes we attempt to put events behind us, to rationalize them. War was declared on our country a little more than two weeks ago, but the state of our union is strong, says President Bush.\nAlthough alarmed by the terrorist attacks, the general feeling among young people seems to be that things will work themselves out.\nOur generation's perception of destruction and evil has been blurred by complex film plots and special effects. But the damage in Washington, D.C., New York and Pennsylvania is real -- not part of some movie promoted by the networks.\nWhat's most scary about the attacks is they were carried out by other young people. Young people who were not only willing to die for their beliefs, but kill more than 6,000 others in the process. And for one day our country, and the world with it, stopped.\nThere was before Sept. 11 and now there's after Sept. 11, and that's likely how we'll put things in context for the rest of our lives.\nIf the attacks were anything, they were a wake-up call to the evil in the world. If there was innocence before, it should be all but gone now.\nThere is determination among Osama bin Laden and his cohorts to destroy us and everything we stand for, and we must counter with greater determination.\nOn May 28, ABC News Correspondent John Miller interviewed bin Laden somewhere in southern Afghanistan.\n"We predict a black day for America and the end of the United States as United States, and will be separate states, and will retreat from our land and collect the bodies of its sons back to America. Allah willing," bin Laden told Miller.\nThe Taliban warned Americans Monday they are "igniting a fire that will burn them" if Afghanistan is attacked. \nBut we've already been burned; look at the smoke over Manhattan.\nThe attacks are not an isolated incident. God forbid, they could happen again. Bin Laden and his followers are armed, dangerous and unaccountable to anyone but themselves.\nWe -- America's youth -- are their antithesis. \nBeyond trying to fight terrorism -- because who knows how long the fight will last or how easy it will be to fight those we intend to -- there has to be a concerted effort among all young Americans to get up from the ground to which we have been beaten down and stand up taller. Everything has to be done better.\nIf ever the cliché "you are the future" wasn't cliche, it's now. In a community where education is top priority, we must be more educated. In a country where democracy rules, we must be more democratic. In a world both blessed and plagued by religion, we must be more upstanding.\nSoon enough we will graduate and America's fate will be ours. President Bush may make the decisions now, but we are the ones inheriting the world.\nCan we stand up to the tall order?\nA retired police sergeant with the Port Authority Police of New York & New Jersey and former sergeant in the United States Marine Corps, Richard Kiselewsky expressed his concern with America's young in an e-mail.\n"While we all like to stand and cheer the fact remains, when it comes to sacrifice, few are willing to step up and be counted," Kiselewsky wrote. "So much for the spirit of America."\nHopefully, history will remember our generation as one that acted with vigilance, that stood up for itself and numbered off for what was right before it was asked to be counted.