As the notification flashed on my phone screen, my heart sank. As the death toll rose it sank even further. A lump began to form in my throat as I heard the words "terrorism." This description could be used to describe any week in the past year it seems; every time would feel accurate and relevant. But as the body count only increases, the response has seemed to be on the decline. People don't seem to mention many of these events, regardless of the place they occurred. I used to think this was due to the fact that we only cared when it affected certain countries, which very well could hold true, but even in countries past allegiance has been show towards, the stir is far less noticeable. I wouldn't say this response is because of a lack of media attention. Outlets like CNN slowed the frequency of Trump and Hilary scrutiny and focused on playing the heart wrenching audio of people screaming in horror and agony. They even made a photo montage with somber music to alert the audience that nonstop coverage was about to begin. The global coverage has grown to the point that I now know what ambulances look like in numerous countries simply because of the videos shown in the aftermath of carnage.
At this point, we have grown rather numb to the tragedies. Another attack only holds our attention in the short term. As the flower memorials begin to wither and the candles flicker out, the story changes to the next tragic event. Rather than come up with real strategies to combat this, we try to forget. Has our forgetting worked so well that now we try to never allow ourselves to hear about the stories in the first place?
It is rather sad to think that such violence has become so commonplace that we treat it as normal. When someone runs down hundreds of people in a truck filled with guns and explosives killing at least 80 people it should be a big deal. Instead, we try to hide from this reality. Our skin grows thicker to make us numb to the news. We don't talk about it, as if that makes the harsh reality a little bit easier to bear. The world isn't what we thought it once was. Terrorism and violence like this seem to be even more evident in our world. That is a hard pill to swallow, the security and safety we once felt has slowly been eaten away. We never used to fear the possible outcomes of a trip to the mall, theater, or club; now we do.
Many times, this period we live in is referred to as post 9/11. In a way this is the truth, in the 15 years after the world was rocked by a deadly attack from a threat that never seemed possible, the world has changed. I don't remember a time when airport security didn't exist. For me, meeting a loved one at the gate was a tale long lost in the fairy tale that was history. But as metal detectors were installed at sporting events and liquids were restricted I began to notice. I wouldn't call these last few years directly post 9/11 era.Sure, we still deal with the reality that slapped us in the face that morning in September, but we now face threats we never dreamt of back then. Our precautions are rooted not in the goal of preventing more 9/11 like events, but in our goal to stop more events like Paris, Orlando, Boston, Brussels, Turkey and countless others. Unlike in 2001, there wasn't a defining event or day we can say caused new concerns and fears. It is the culmination of the reality which we now live. As the threat evolves and our best efforts to thwart it seem to only postpone the next occurrence maybe going numb is the only way to keep ourselves sane. If we act like nothing has happened and keep our news feeds full of stories on cats and the latest tips to catch Pokemon at least it feels like we are prepared. Because if we don't talk about the death and the violence the threat doesn't exist, even if just in our mind.
We should be concerned that mass casualty events are so normal to hear about that they aren't really getting talked about. There is a fine line between not letting terrorism succeed in making us fearful to go about our lives and not caring about those affected. The world shouldn't be a place where terrorism is normal, we shouldn't have to live in fear.
