QUOTE: Prophet Muhammad (570-632)

Without that I knew about it had my 4-year-old daughter made this drawing,
almost a month after she and I had seen on CNN how the planes crashed
into the twin towers in New York on 11 September 2001.

11 SEPTEMBER 2001: I had just come home to our apartment here in Vilnius after having brought my then 4-year-old daughter home from kindergarten. She was playing on the floor beside me while I sat down to watch the latest world news on CNN. What I saw on the screen in front of me was so unreal that I first could not believe that this was real news. My first thought was that CNN was showing fragments of a new film or the like. But it soon dawned on me that what I was seeing was the beginning of an unimaginable attack and a tragedy that would forever change our world's history and development.

11 September 2001 was the day when America was attacked on its own soil. The unthinkable had happened.

Today, 2 May 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US special troops.

The almost ten years that have followed since that September day in 2001, have brought enormous changes, not only in the U.S., but to the entire world. The war against terrorism, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, the new Arab revolts, and countless suicide attacks across virtually the entire world have all become symbols of our time -- in a way few of us could have imagined when the new millennium had barely started.

Lithuania has been little influenced by the 'war on terror'. Admittedly, the country is participating with troops in Afghanistan and it also became an almost-scandal when it became known that the CIA had two prisons for suspected terrorists here since 2005.

But even if Lithuania is not so much directly affected by what has happened around the world after the attack on the twin towers in New York on 11 September 2001, this country is also a part of a global society that is both physically and mentally experiencing enormous repercussions.

I have often asked myself: "What kind of world is it our children have to grow up in post-9/11? The daily traumas inflicted to the children in the two countries that have been hardest hit, Iraq and Afghanistan, are naturally the worst and most long-term harmful, but our children in the so-called free world have undoubtedly also been influenced by what happened and they will for many years have to experience the consequences in many different ways.

I was not aware that my little daughter saw what took place on the TV screen this September day ten years ago, so I must admit I was slightly shocked and shaken when she suddenly, a month later, came to give me a drawing she had made. The image of 'a plane flying into the tall tower' had been instilled in the child brain, and here she came to me with her visualisation of what she had seen and experienced in her thoughts when I thought she was quietly playing, occupied in her own childish world.

It goes without saying that we, the adults, need to help children feel as safe as possible at a time when the world has become a more dangerous place. Parents and teachers in particular should help youngsters understand current events factually, how events do or do not impact their lives, and how to handle their emotional reactions. All children are likely to be affected in some way by ‘the age of terrorism’.

For many of our children, the guidance of caring adults will make the difference between being overwhelmed and developing life-long emotional and psychological coping skills. It is crucial to provide opportunity for children to discuss their concerns and to help them separate real from imagined fears.

The lessons of 11 September 2001 are many. Some ‘contribute’ by burning the Quran. Others work for reconciliation and understanding between the people of our fragile little planet.

Hopefully the lesson of 2 May 2011 will be a peaceful one.

Aage Myhre
Editor