Big Jew on Campus: The big "Oh"

It's the sound people make when they are both dumbfounded and stripped of their dignity in one shocking motion.

"Oh."

It's the sound they make when they are curious for more information, yet feel that they have sufficient knowledge of the subject to make a conclusion before they get the bigger picture.

I first heard the perplexed "oh" when I told my English professor that I wanted to go into the field of counterterrorism after I graduate college. The "oh" definitely made sense for the woman who formed her world and political views in the 1970s and literally still wears those clothes and that attitude almost forty years later.

But she was lucky. I watered it down for her. When I am too bashful and don't want to sound like a war-mongering right-wing hawk I say, "homeland security," hoping that the use of the word homeland invokes a peaceful domestic image filled with American family values devoid of the conflict raging outside. And "security" is purely a defensive, almost passive word, not nearly as upsetting or scary as the proactivity of "counter" combined with the politically charged and volatile subject of the word "terrorism."

Sometimes the word "oh" comes as a surprise when a professor of mine hopes that I will stay in the academic world. When my British history professor was pleased with my progress in the class and asked if I would continue to research the field, especially since I had prior interest in the subject, his "oh" was less because of the political bombshell I unloaded against him, but more like a roadblock, stopping him in his tracks with a big red sign declaring "No Intellectuals Allowed Beyond This Point."

I don't think the "oh"s I get are from people opposed to what I plan on doing, but they simply are surprised, like I am going into some obscure occupation or off to a distant land that most don't venture to. After all, why would a bright student go off into a field so far removed from academia? Why engage in a discussion about such a stimulating subject such as literature or British history one moment, then in such an unbecoming and boorish topic of counterterrorism the next moment?

Part of the reason the "oh"s I get come with such surprise is because this society still is not used to the reality of terrorism and war. American society has never been able to stomach long military engagements, and the thought of domestic institutions dedicated to war is a scary thought for most, including myself.

I don't think that I get the "oh" from discontent, but rather from befuddlement. They are confused about my personal choice and life-situation and about the situation of society as a whole. When I say that scary word, "counterterrorism," it reminds them that there is a world beyond the confines of the American home and classroom, and it's not always a pretty place.