By: Ellen Fair ’19

Has terrorism become so normalized that it is now okay to sit in the cafeteria and casually ask, “Did you hear about the car that trucked through eight people in New York?”

It’s like our country is becoming numb to terrorism. We are becoming tired of fear because it is emotionally draining.  This phenomenon actually has a name:  it is called  “fear fatigue,” and our country has a bad case of it.

I am 16 years old, I have only lived in a world where terrorism is common. As bad as it sounds, terrorism feels normal to me.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that hit the Twin Towers in the fall of 2001, there has been an increase in domestic terrorism within the United States. Since 9/11, there have been roughly four hundred and fifteen attacks that have been claimed by jihadist terrorist groups.

Terrorism has felt like a vicious pattern to me ever since I could remember. It’s a pattern that continuously repeats itself. We are targeted, we are attacked, we mourn, we move on. We move on until we are faced with yet another vicious action. In an article by newsbeat reporters for BBC, they explain the reality of the attacks.  “You see this one [terror attack] and forget about the last time,” the reporters wrote.

Ordinary people walking in the streets on their way to or from work, little girls dancing to their favorite pop star at a concert, having a night out at a nightclub, terrorism seems to strike everywhere. Our country isn’t perfect, our government officials and security cannot predict when the next attack will occur, but as a nation we can  prevent terrorism from becoming such a common occurrence.

Increasing the military force in the these Middle Eastern countries, or even putting temporary more strict immigration policies into place could help to decrease the rapid, repetitive pattern that is currently occurring.

I wish to experience a life in which terrorism isn’t a common fear, a life in which terrorism does not feel normal, and a life in which terrorism is something that has become a history lesson rather than a current problem.