A Decade in Crisis

A few weeks ago, I wrote A Decade in Crisis = The Opportunity of a Generation, a guest blog post for SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together) reflecting on the ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The past decade has forced our nation to once again grapple with the same questions our Founders aimed to settle two centuries ago. Then, a euphoric declaration of liberty by a new nation presaged constitutional protections to insulate individual rights from arbitrary violation by the state, inspiring most of the world to eventually follow suit. Today, South Asians stand among the canaries singing in our constitutional coal mines as they creak under the weight of a mounting civilization crisis. It was only 20 years ago that, having triumphed in the Cold War, America briefly considered an era of post-history.  We celebrated the triumph of western liberalism over authoritarianism.  Some, like Professor Francis Fukayama, suggested that America’s unipolar dominance would inevitably spread western values across the globe, permanently ending conflict promoted in the name of ideology. How wrong they were.

Read the rest at SAALT’s blog.