On September 10th, 2013 I sat down in front of my television just a couple minutes after nine o'clock. I watched our president stride confidently to the podium, waiting for him to convince me that a targeted strike on Syria was justified. I had been determined to pay close attention for any sign of disagreement, agreement, or passionate feeling I had about what he saying. My goal was to be an active citizen with my own opinion and thoughts about this subject.
As I watched Obama speak I was all too convinced about what he was telling me. This man I barely knew promised me a simple targeted strike with no major casualties and a fairytale ending where America was once again the hero. Or at least this is what I interpreted it as. Then, I closed my eyes for a brief second and heard the disagreement ringing through my ears. Obama had just said, "I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria". I immediately muttered out, "yeah right". I have heard politicians promise a lot of things to know there is always an exception to it. Perhaps, the targeted strike only upset the Assad regime more and they retaliated against the United States. Syria would then bring in terrorist groups to do their dirty work. Then, along would come the American boots that were promised a few months before that they would never have to step foot on Syrian ground.
As weird as it may sound I felt some what accomplished after I watched Obama's speech. Maybe it was the feeling of maturity creeping in on my 16 year old body. I had my opinion on Syria and how it could possibly effect the nation in the future. Watching this was not only to learn about what a powerful man was saying about a issue but to know that I could be an intelligent, well aware citizen. This probably sounds really cheesy. I couldn't help thinking back to another time when I was watching television and something big occurred yet I was too young to understand.
On September 11th, 2001 I sat down in front of the television a little after 8:30 to watch my favorite show Dragon Tales. I went to go grab the clicker from my dad on the couch but he told me to go sit down. I started to whine because I wanted to watch my show and my dad wouldn't change the channel. I couldn't understand why he was just watching a building covered in flames. I remember seeing the concerned look on his face so I quit whining, sat down, and watched the two buildings burn and people running away from the gray cloud of smoke chasing them down the street.
Exactly 12 years from that day I sit here writing about the world issues that still confuse me. However, I am no longer that ignorant 4 year old wanting to watch Dragon Tales. I am a well aware citizen hoping that I don't see American boots on Syrian ground.
Katrina, this is great. Honestly, I am surprised that I have not heard more commentary about the odd timing of the President's speech. There is some legitimate complexity to your presentation here that you should be proud of. I love how you root your self-reflection about the proposed Syrian strikes in a narrative about your own personal intellectual maturity. This is very clever, and effective. If this were a creative writing piece, I would also credit you for choosing "Dragon Tales" as the cartoon you tried to watch. That seems appropriate given that dragons breath fire and fly from the sky.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this post is very strong, by far your best of the year. There are a couple sentences that are not perfect, but they do not detract from the quality of your writing. I am glad that you are realizing your intelligence and your ability to make your own decisions regarding U.S. diplomatic/political decisions. As I said today, this is the goal of education.
For the record, I too hope we don't see "boots on the ground." In my short life, I feel like I have already seen that too many times. Too many times.