Low student attendance at a discussion about the way America has changed politically, spiritually and socially since Sept. 11 highlighted panelists' consensus: that the terrorist attacks created a "lighting bolt effect" in which issues were illuminated but the landscape remained unchanged.
The members of yesterday's panel -- Rockefeller Center Director Linda Fowler, Dean of the Tucker Foundation Stuart Lord and Associate Dean of the Faculty Richard Wright -- focused on whether Sept. 11 truly transformed the nation.
Though each panelist concentrated on a different aspect of society, they were in agreement that little fundamental change has occurred since Sept. 11.
Fowler credited the Constitution for the relative political stability after the events of Sept. 11 and noted that even an event as large as the stock market crash of 1929 preceding the Great Depression took nearly five years to truly effect domestic policy.
Although "suspicious of single causes," Fowler did attribute such phenomena as dispelled animosity between Republicans and Democrats and the far left's newly-discovered patriotism in part to Sept. 11.
Addressing spiritual effects of the attacks, Lord suggested the rise in church attendance and other forms of religious observance immediately after Sept. 11 -- which have since dropped off -- did not indicate significant change.
Wright, agreeing with the two prior speakers about the lack of transforming change in America, focused on the issue of racial profiling. He argued that the government sanction of racial profiling could actually be counter-productive and infringed upon civil liberties.
All panel members expressed concern and disappointment near the end of the discussion at the lack of students present. The first step to address concerns raised by Sept. 11 and to affect change, they said, is dialogue.
The panel discussion, organized by the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, was the first of a two-part series that continues tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Filene Auditorium.
