This Weeks Subject

9/11/2001

On the morning of 9/11/2001, I was sleeping as usual when my creepy friendly neighbor decided to let himself into the house to wake me up. He barged-in, yelling some nonsense about stuff being blown-up that my asleep brain couldn't decipher. However, alerting me to danger before my slumbering mind could figure out where I had left my baseball-bat, or utter the words, "someone better be dead", was really in everyone's best interest. Ignoring our tea while trying to make phone calls to loved ones, we looked on in horror as the second plane hit the towers. He was trying to contact his wife, who had left earlier that morning for work, while I tried calling my boyfriend who had departed a few days ago, to drive a truck around the country.

In the wake of 9/11, everything seemed to stand still. The only animated life to be seen were the talking heads on the television; even they seemed to talk slower, their facial expressions bereft. In the relative safety provided by the flimsy cages of their homes, Americans sat glued to their televisions, their loved ones close by. In the event that you needed something from the grocery store, you might have found that you'd forgotten what you'd come in search for, among those familiar aisles, coming unfrozen some time later, near the Hungry Man dinners. If you had to go somewhere -- absolutely had to hit the highway -- you had to wonder if the person in front you might have a break down, inadvertently losing control of their car.

Americans had never seen a terrorist attack kill so many people on their home soil. People were in a state of shock, ready to believe what they were told, and wanting someone to blame. Traumatized, they were too shaken-up to think clearly, and ask appropriate questions of their leaders. Patriotically, they were ready to do as they were told, thinking it was in the best interests of their safety. However, I think some leaders used this to advance their own personal agendas.

 Additionally, with 9/11 being carried out by extremist individuals originating from outside the U.S., it gave our leaders that much more leeway in exploiting the general public's fears. Extremists, and their always righteous views, inevitably breed contempt -- especially from other extremists. In the aftermath of the attack, America has a surge of extremists finding themselves surrounded by like minded people.

There are reasons that other countries have been known to dislike or distrust America, which speaks to the good sense of trying to pass yourself off as Canadian while traveling abroad. From American soil, it's hard to say who is winning George W. Bush's "War on Terror". In a sense it is unquantifiable, as I won't be informed of what our government can't acknowledge, and my only real gauge is that I am alive, writing a blog.

Today, even after new laws were enacted to help thwart terrorists, giving the government access to an array of personal information, and all the airport scanners were paid for, so the general public may safely travel, it is hard to say if we really are any safer than we were on that day. Waging wars around the world does not make America look more favorable, instead it just throws fuel on the fire, adding weight to extremist rhetoric. Also, America is home to many home-grown, lone-wolf, school-boy terrorists. We are a land of gun owners, with a high ratio of gun related deaths. We top the list in incarceration, and boast the most serial killers. We never know what the future will bring, but now that George W. Bush is out of the White House, I know I feel a lot safer.