Remembering 9/11/01 from eight years out

As I was driving into work today, I saw some people holding a sign, "Remember 9/11." While the thought is never far from the surface on September 11, I started to think about where I was and what the day had meant.

Looking back at the last eight years, I find it amazing how much the events on September 11, 2001 changed my life in fundamental ways. At the time, I had virtually no interest or knowledge about international relations. Even though I was living in Boston at the time, I barely knew New York. I had never been to Washington, DC. I didn't directly know anyone who worked in the World Trade Center or in the Pentagon.

When the first plane hit the World Trade Center, I was in an art history class learning about the Taliban (at the time I thought they just sounded like a bunch of sexist creeps - Okay, I got that one right, but didn't know the history behind them) blowing up the Colossal Buddhas of Bamyan. Walking back to my apartment from class, I had no idea that something horrific was happening. Around 9:30 that morning I checked my email. My inbox had a ton of forwards about planes and the World Trade Center. Since chain letters were popular at the time, I thought it was a sick joke or a virus and deleted all of them. Then I got the same email from my mother (she never really forwards anything so I realized at this point I should probably read it). I was floored. My first thought (and one to this day that still embarrasses me) was that the planes taking off from Logan airport hit the World Trade Center in Boston. It is right by the airport so maybe the plane (at this point there was only one) had a mechanical problem and hit the building. I had no idea.

As the day continued, everything became clear. As everyone is now aware, two planes hit the World Trade Center in Manhattan. It collapsed. There is tons of horrific footage of people running away in terror. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon - something was still evident that years later when I lived three blocks from the Pentagon in Pentagon City. A fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, DC.

No one I personally knew died in September 11. However, it had a profound impact on my life. I started to see cultural misunderstandings and prejudices that I had not previously seen. Muslim students, including my best friend, were harassed on campus. One student even had his room broken into and his wall spray painted with anti-Muslim graffiti. This became an emerging trend throughout America and the western world.

I started to see a shift in my career possibilities and interests. Before September 11, I was planning to move to New York and work in the advertising field. With the fall out of 9/11, those opportunities evaporated. My future became uncertain. We went to war with Afghanistan because the Taliban had sheltered Osama bin Laden and allowed al-Qaeda training camps in their country (we still conveniently ignore these camps in Pakistan since they are a U.S. ally). I realized I needed to have a better understanding of international relations. I felt that since I was having a hard time with the direction the United States was moving it was important to expand my knowledge base and perhaps, even contribute to changing this course. This lead to my decision to move to Washington, DC in 2003 and attend American University's School of International Service. I got a master's degree in International Peace and Conflict Resolution with a mixed focus of human rights and intercultural communications.

Ironically, my master's degree led me back into the communications field. I love international relations and human rights work, but I feel that the work and messages are often lost. I feel that the working as a communications professional I can help reshape perspectives and shift paradigms in a positive way that allows these messages to be heard.

So, September 11, while a horrific day, changed my path and opened my mind to new possibilities and world views.

Social media for social change

Yesterday, it was announced that Hugh Jackman is pledging $100,000 to charity based off of Twitter appeals. This seems to be part of an emerging trend of using social media to impact positive social change.

Throughout my life, I've been involved in numerous charitable organizations. I currently volunteer at three - The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), Street Soccer USA and Global Youth Partnership for Africa. The emergence of social media has opened the door for organizations such as these to communicate with much wider audiences and connect more easily with interested parties on a global scale.

One program that has excelled digitally is the Tap Project, a UNICEF project run by the New York-based office of Droga5. The campaign is based on the following premise:

Every day, 4,200 children die of water-related diseases and nearly 900 million people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water.

Solution: Restaurants would ask their patrons to donate $1 or more for the tap water they usually enjoy for free, and all funds raised would support UNICEF’s efforts to bring clean and accessible water to millions of children around the world.

For this year's World Water Day (March 22) and World Water week, they created Tap Project Radio, an internet radio station to benefit the Tap Project for UNICEF. The project was a week-long collaboration between DJs, musicians, celebrities and advertising icons to raise awareness for the issue. DJs included OK GO, Rilo Kiley, Duran Duran as well as celebrity DJ’s like Elijah Wood and Rosanne Arquette. The goal was to raise $10,000 to give 10,000 kids clean drinking water for 40 days. In addition, they created a Facebook fan page and Twitter feed for the radio station.

There is also a Twitter account for the organization in general. And, they are currently running a video submission contest for "What Water Means to Me" to be featured on their YouTube channel. If you are interested in submitting, you can email your entry to tapproject@unicefusa.org.

More information on the thought process behind the Tap Project can be found here.

And, yet again I circle

Lately, I've been giving a lot of thought to the potential different directions my life can take. While this is something that is very common for me, I'm finding that my two main career interests appear to be circling each other again.

When I was back in New England for vacation, I met someone who got me thinking again about how important it is to do work that you find meaningful. The conversations both with him the night I met him and through email afterward made me start to question... How do I reconnect my background in human rights and international conflict resolution with my current work both as a designer and as a professional in the advertising and public relations field? Is there a way to do it without completely closing one of the doors?

I'm not sure what the answer is. One thing I have been considering is volunteer work. While that sounds a little insane with my current schedule of working a full time job, taking classes in art direction four nights a week, working on projects outside of class and attempting to sleep or occasionally go to the gym, I really think it might be something that is necessary for me to do. With that being said, I started looking into places in the Twin Cities that could be a good fit for my interests and with their needs. The solution, as of now, is the Center for Victims of Torture.

I applied to be a volunteer so now it's just wait and see if they want my help and what kind of help they want. And, of course, continuing to think about options to reconnect my interests.