Ask your older family members what they were doing when they found out about the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 or the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing — they remember. Ask students in a Lowell High School hallway what they were doing when they found out about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 — ten years later, we still remember and are grappling with its impact.

That sunny Tuesday morning, my father woke me up a little past 6 a.m. to tell me that the Twin Towers had fallen. Not fully awake and only six years old, his words did not register fully until I heard my mother’s frantic questions as she phoned my aunt, who at the time worked as an accountant in Manhattan, happy to hear my aunt’s reassurance that she was fine.

For our generation, our childhood can be divided into two time periods: pre-Sept. 11 and post-Sept. 11. Unfortunately, the tragedy and our nation’s reaction — the Patriot Act and wars in Iraq — have influenced America’s youth to be ignorant and paranoid.

I’m unable to recall most of my first grade year, but what I remember with the most clarity is how society incorrectly taught me that the following three terms are always related: “terrorist,” “hijab” and “Middle Eastern.” Society concluded that these terms, along with a few others like “Muslim” were to blame for Sept. 11.

As the U.S. was thrown into an unexpected “war against terrorism” in 2001, many politicians and citizens turned to profiling and cultural bias, although some clear-headed people tried to keep a voice of reason. Americans have made scapegoats out of people who fit their perceptions — or worse, their stereotypes — of Middle Eastern people. A Sept. 28, 2001 report, “American Backlash: Terrorists Bring War Home in More Ways than One” by the South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow stated that in the week directly after the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. media reported 645 incidents of bias against “Americans perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent.”

Islamophobia thrived in the U.S. after the terrorist attacks. In an article titled “FBI sees leap in anti-Muslim hate crimes” published on Nov. 26, 2002 in the San Francisco Chronicle, a 2001 FBI report is cited, reporting that hate crimes against Muslims jumped a staggering 1,600 percent in 2001 merely because of their name, clothes, skin color or religion, holding them responsible for al-Qaeda’s actions. Sadly, this bias has been embraced by some youth while others, often Muslim youth and progressive youth, reject the backlash.

These prejudices follow a false application of a logic rule that I learned in the first semester of Geometry Honors. “Modus ponens:” if p, then q. “If America thinks you are from the Middle East, then you are a terrorist.” Many U.S. citizens and impressionable youth believed — or, even worse, continue to believe — in this “false logic” statement.

As I began sixth grade in 2006, a new era in airport security travel began. Suddenly, the Transportation Security Administration was telling us that we could only have three ounces or less of liquids or gels in our carry-on luggage. Apparently, if terrorists brought more than three ounces of toothpaste or shampoo onto the airplane, they could create bombs using the ingredients in personal hygiene products.

Youth have grown up guarded in this “police presence” where they are taught that if we slip with our safety, we’ll have terrorists hiding potential bombs in their underwear. But the TSA has to be extremely careful when they introduce new policies; today, there is a very fine line between being careful and being invasive. After all, these new policies were deemed necessary in light of the security breaches highlighted in a 2001 Department of Homeland Security report: “The hijackers passed through security checkpoints at four U.S. airports, allegedly carrying knives, box cutters and concealed weapons on their person or in carry-on luggage.”

The new security measures were met with considerable controversy, and rightly so. How is it justified when a six-year-old child is subject to a pat-down that critics compared to “groping?” How is it justified when a 95-year-old woman suffering from leukemia is instructed to remove her adult diaper because TSA officials found something suspiciously “wet and firm?” Teens look askance at extreme policies to eliminate any possible terrorist threats, especially if they see an elderly leukemia patient bound to a wheelchair, yet being perceived as “suspicious.”

Sept. 11 brought out a strong sense of vulnerability in all of us. We thought we were such a high and mighty nation. How could such a terrible disaster happen to us? Teens have been growing up with the nation’s explosion of American patriotism, with both positive and negative flip sides. After the attack, it was nearly impossible to go somewhere without spotting a U.S. flag up for display, screaming, “Well, al-Qaeda, you hijacked four airplanes and killed around 3,000 innocent civilians. But you know what? We’re the United States of America. We’re still strong, and we’re going to stick together as a nation and make it through this.” Yet, with all this talk about standing together, America ironically targeted its own citizens and committed hate crimes against them. Just last year, 68 percent of Americans opposed the construction of a mosque about two blocks away from Ground Zero because they considered it disrespectful to family and friends of the victims. (See “Towering Intolerance,” The Lowell, Sept. 2010)

Ten years later, we must never forget what happened on Sept. 11, never forget the thousands of innocent lives lost, never forget the bravery and heroism of rescue officers who immediately responded to the attacks. We must remain united to someday eliminate the threat of terrorism from the earth, but not to solidify just with people similar to our personal group, but to rise up with all people, Muslims included, who hate terrorism.

At the end of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore makes a speech to Hogwarts students after Lord Voldemort’s return. “…We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided,” he instructs. “Lord Voldemort’s gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.” Substitute “terrorists” for “Lord Voldemort” and we can’t go wrong with Dumbledore’s advice.

A version of this article first appeared in the Sept. 9, 2011 print edition of The Lowell.