UK PROFESSOR 9/11

The terrorist attacks.

As we honor the lives lost on september eleven..

What about the generation, a bit too young to remember the attacks.

Abc 36's bobbi mcswine spoke to a u-k history professor...he says the tragedy has shaped their lives in more ways than one.

"in some ways they've had to grow up with a generational trauma that others didn't have to experience."

Eladio bobadilla...history professor at the c1 3 university of kentucky...says many of his current students were either not born before 9/11...or were really young.

"i think for older people that's kinda what it was.

It was a moment that changed everything for them.

They way they looked at the world.

They way they looked at their country."

But he says their kids...and grandkids...don't have memories to fall back on.

"they grew up in a world where there was no pre 9/11.

This is all they know.

All they know is a country at war."

Bobadilla says several of his students have family in the military...some of his older students served already...and bobadilla himself joined right after high school...in response to 9/11.

He says although 9/11 has largely shaped his students' lives...they use it to address other societal issues.

"some of the conversations we've had revovle around the fact that by early april, more americans had died from the coronavirus than died during the terrorist attacks in 2001."

Bobadilla says his students also say they think society more readily accepts foreign terrorism as a real threat...but not domestic terrorism.

"i think it's harder for a lot of people to grapple with, to understand that terror doesn't always come from outside."

Bobadilla says many of his students will be first-time voters this november...and these things...among others...will be on their mind.

"i'm hopeful that this is a moment not just of division, but a moment where we come together to ealize what's at stake for the future, and i think my students give my great hope that we are doing just that."

In lexington...bobbi mcswine...abc 36 news.

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