The original version of this column came across as a substandard, and frankly half-hearted, analysis of the ongoing troubles of our planet. I can deliver better than that, and you, our faithful readers, deserve better. Allow me, then, to deliver my state of the world address.

My dear Cougs, these past many years we have witnessed calamity and atrocity beyond measure. Any optimism born out of the fall of the Soviet Union and the prosperity of the 90s and new millennium have since been washed away by global and domestic terror, economic recession and the looming specter of a changing global climate.

We know the stories. We have read about them, seen them dissected ad nauseam on our media, and too many of us have lived them. As icing on the cake, our leaders dither away about policies and promises that never come to fruition. The demagogues preach for us a dialect of fear, of a belief that our way of life is under siege from within and without.

Make no mistake, my friends, our way of life is indeed threatened, but by ourselves as much as masked people half a world away.

In the past, I have exhorted the virtues of the millennial generation, our capacity for fellowship, generosity, empathy, cultural competency and high-minded civic awareness and engagement.

Yet there is a dark side to us.

Despite our best intentions, we are a cliquey generation. In some cases this is merited: many of us come from oppressed and marginalized populations of all flavors and therefore find better comfort and success among our fellows. There is safety to be gained from identity and acceptance.

In so many words, there is a choice to be made here between divisions or unity. I cannot hope to teach our parents and grandparents, but there is time to teach ourselves. There is still a chance to grow, understand and befriend. There is also a chance to continue to divide ourselves by race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, friend group and college degree.

Various student affairs groups insipidly preach the virtue of ‘community.’ This word, however, is by now exhausted of value. Let me propose a stronger alternative: family. We are a human family, no mistaking. We fight like family, ostracize like family and hopefully reconcile like family. Optimistically, we may love like family, too. In future days, we should look to build family, not community.

We should furthermore adopt a posture of boundless empathy. My priest in last Sunday’s sermon inspired me. Often, she noticed, we describe our own fear about the other, who in these past years has taken the form of the Muslim person. She encouraged us to indulge not in our own fear but rather in the fear of our Muslim friends and neighbors who have to walk past rows of Christian churches, which they may or may not think hostile, to their own place of worship. Then, they get to enjoy their house of faith invaded by ill-intentioned persons and physically vandalized.

We must be empathetic beyond all measure toward the other. WSU is an incredibly diverse school, so we must constantly be aware that the positive messages we receive about ourselves on a daily basis are not the warnings people from other countries receive about us. Not only are we obligated more than ever to show welcome, but we must also show self-giving hospitality to those who do not look, talk or act like us.

These past 100 years were supposed to be a bright continuance of the liberal dialect of ever-increasing freedom, hope and human progress. Instead, we have mired ourselves in a violent deadlock. I say unto you that hope is not yet lost. This generation has yet to leave its mark on history. We have not yet begun to fight.

The coming years will be definitive of how we make our world. The power of the Internet and globalized institutions has radically changed how we interact with each other. My message is this: we must enrich these tools with our open hearts and minds, an unfailing sense of cosmopolitanism and an unfaltering sense of decency.

The many promises and hopes of the last century are not yet lost. So where there is hatred, let us bring love. Where there is discord, let us bring harmony. Where there is doubt, let us bring confidence. And where there is injury, let us bring forgiveness.

Happy holidays.

Tyler Laferriere is a first year master’s student in applied economics and statistics from Phoenix, Ariz. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of the Office of Student Media.