“Not again.”
Elmo, 19
I was sitting on my bed sick when I heard the ABC special report come on. “Two bombs have just gone off at the Boston Marathon. Two are presumed dead and many are injured.” The only thought that went through my mind was, “Not again.”
The bombing really made me realize that there will be widespread paranoia and Middle Easterners will be suspected for this, and no one is going to go at this rationally. I understand that you need to find out who did this and check people; however, everyone needs to have patience and be calm about it. Getting crazier will not help the situation.
Trying to understand why someone would hurt innocent people is beyond me. The perpetrator(s) only achieve the satisfaction of knowing that they hurt people. They have no regard for other people’s lives, just for some cause or belief. I am just disgusted though, but I can’t blame a group for a couple of bad eggs. What I’m trying to say is, hate the people who did the crime, not the people who didn’t.
I don’t really feel any safer now than I did at the time of 9/11. There is so much turmoil, I expect another attack. We just need to act as a strong nation and pick up the pieces. We cannot let something like this frighten our everyday lives. We need to be confident that our fellow neighbor will support us when we most need it, and likewise.
We can’t fully control terrorism but we can have the support for each other that we will not stand down. We as a nation will stand strong and show that we may be hurt but we are strong and we will not stand for hurting our fellow man. I am an optimistic man and I do believe that incidents like this only make us stronger as a nation. Let’s just take this rationally and calmly.
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
