September 11, 2001. That date is forever etched in my mind, and the images that follow will disturb me for the rest of my life. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Who would have thought that at the age of 13 my world would be forever changed? I was school when the news broke out and I remember the day being filled with questions and confusion. Was it really World War 3 as people were saying? Did New York City really explode? I guess everything got blown out of proportion that day as most adolescents don’t’ know what there talking about when it comes to world news. But I do know this- the world did change, and it may not be world war 3 but there is definitely a war still going on, whether people want to admit that or not.
As the six- year anniversary approaches this week, I find myself filled with confusion again. My heart breaks when I think back to that dark Tuesday, and I can’t help but think that people have forgotten what happened that day. Each year I become more observant of people around me and I’ve noticed that as the years go on people seem to have really forgotten. The first anniversary was the hardest one, and the ceremonies that took place were extremely moving, and I noticed Americans taking pride in our country. But now, no one seems to notice that the anniversary is this Tuesday. I think it should be a national holiday or day of remembrance for the thousands of innocent lives that were lost.
Another issue that has been on my mind for the past few years is the War on Terror were fighting. I’ll admit, I’m guilty of not following the news on a regular basis, and I just read the headlines on the Internet. However, I don’t even need to read the headlines to be enraged. I just listen to ignorant people talk around me. “We shouldn’t be fighting in Iraq! Were killing innocent people!” “Why can’t we all just get along and be peaceful!?” I too wish the world could be a peaceful place full of rainbows and butterflies, but that is just not the case. People in America seem to take advantage of our freedom, and fail to realize that if they were living in the middle east their freedoms would be greatly limited. I just wish people would understand that even though Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda terrorist network are rooted in Afghanistan, the middle east is the forefront for the war, be it Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan etc. I just recently watched a video online saying that Osama Bin Laden is probably hiding in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan. What angers me is that our troops can only search for him on the Afghanistan border, which makes no sense considering we give 10 billion dollars in aid to Pakistan- you think they’d let us look for him?
I hope that that by the next anniversary of 9/11 in 2008 I’ll be able to blog about the capturing of Osama Bin Laden instead of his search.
2 comments:
I am sitting here at my desk six years after two planes crashed into the World Trade Centers. It is September, 11 2007. This blog entry "Have We Forgotten?" made me recall 9/11/01, and truthfully, it feels like it was yesterday. I remember exactly what I was doing and where I was when I found out the news. I remember all the different feelings that overwhelmed my body when I found out about the towers being struck and when I realized that my dad he was sitting at his desk on the fifty fifth floor of the second World Trade Center. I actually did not know that my dad worked in the towers. He always pointed to these really tall buildings when we were in NYC and told me that was where he worked, but it never clicked that these were the World Trade Centers. I didn't realize that he worked there until a teacher pulled me aside and told me my father could not be contacted and that he was in the building. At this precise moment, my heart stopped. 'Did I tell him that I loved him, is he coming coming, does he know that I did not mean anything that I had said when we fought?' All these thought rushed through my head. Luckily, as that day passed, my dad finally answered his cell phone. His building was the first of the two to fall and the planes wing hit 10 stories above his head, but he got out alive. He was fine, and he was coming home. This was one of the happiest days of my life, and that is why when I think of the war, I have somewhat of a different take on it. I don't know too much about the war, all I know is that I don't want anything like that to happen ever again. So if an army over in Iraq is what it will take to stop these attacks, then I am all for it. On the other hand, I do not agree with the fact that other innocent people are dying. It is unfair to say that every Iraquian is bad. It is the terrorist group that was bad, so why are we invading their homes. It is like we are trying to pay them back for what happened to us, but why would we want to do that to other innocent people after being hurt as much as we were? Why should we want other people to feel the pain that we felt? We should not put our hurt onto other innocent people just because they live in the vicinity of where the terrorists lived. I definitely support the troops because I know they are people's family and friends and my own friends, but I do not completely agree with all the killing and the whole idea of the war. All I know is that I agree with you when you said that next year you hope that we won't be searching for Osama anymore, but instead we will have him captured.
Thank God, Chelsea, that your father survived. And thank you for sharing your feelings about that day. I admire you greatly because in spite of your own family's horrible closeness to the terrorist attack, you are fully aware of the equally tragic losses to civilians that have resulted from the destabilization of Iraq. A team of Iraqi doctors and American professors from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health did a study of "excess deaths" from violence and disease in Iraq since the invasion; they found that 655,000 more people have died since the invasion than would have died had it not taken place--about 500 violent deaths per day. And as Chitown Chica correctly points out, the problem is that our "ally" Pakistan, is doing nothing to help us take our revenge on the real mind behind 9/11--Osama Bin Laden.
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