There is nothing I or anyone else can say to fully explain
or help us understand why anyone would plant bombs at a major civilian
celebration like the Boston marathon.
There remains much investigation and profiling left to be done. It’s not even been a month since the attacks
in Copley Square.
I write this knowing that for some, an attempt to understand
or to truly address the root causes of terror, to the extent that we can
identify them, feels like justification.
For what it’s worth, I had skin in this game in a way that was not true
of 9/11. Of course every American—and
many around the world—still feel the outrage and pain of that attack, but the
Boston bombing was different for me. My
family lives in Boston, my mother, my step dad, my sister, my brother in law,
and my 4 year-old niece. Not only do
they live in Boston, they live two blocks from Copley Square and were walking
home from the Sox game (my niece’s first!) near Copley Square when the bombing
occurred. Of course they were on lock
down the Friday after the bombing, as the manhunt for Djokhar unfolded. I had real, beloved skin in this one. The
thought of 5 dearly loved ones all gathered up together in danger with me so
far away remains unbearable.
Perhaps nothing could have prevented those attacks. As Americans seem to increasingly understand,
a free society cannot promise complete security. Intelligence experts will examine their
processes, as will law enforcement. FBI
profilers will flesh out their dossier on whatever motive can be identified.
As a peace educator, however, I don’t want the role and
potential of schools to be overlooked.
In addition to “terrorist” when I look at Djokhar and even his older
brother, I also see a student.
Classmates and friends expressed shock and I have to wonder, was there
outreach a campus peer counselor or professor or Imam could have done that
might have made a difference? Perhaps
not, but surely the effort is worthwhile.
I have long called for peace education in every classroom worldwide. One outcome of peace education ought to be to
inoculate students against extremism.
Professors, friends, bosses, faith leaders and anyone who can help
integrate especially isolated young men into intercultural communities have a
key role to play. Campuses are ideal
spaces for this, if faculty and administration are thoughtful and proactive
about what peace educators often call educating against extremism. (See Lynn Davies for excellent work on
this.) We can’t wait any longer to
create and implement anti-extremist programing and curriculum.
What would such curriculum look like? Perhaps the most important feature it has is
that it insists on critical thought, especially critical dialogue regarding
anti-Americanism, Islamophobia and the underlying, too often unexamined
cultural narratives which underlie both.
This entails bringing in critical media analysis and tough discussions
of the histories of relevant conflicts.
Nothing will ever be a guarantee, but campuses have a vital yet often
overlooked role to play in combating extremist violence. Let’s not wait another day!
