Thursday, September 11, 2008

7 yrs have come and gone already?

So today is September 11th, 2008, wow. It does not seem like it was 7 years ago today that we watched in horror as those Twin Towers fell in New York, as the Pentagon got hit, as the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. A lot of things have changed since that morning.

A lot of things have gone back to how they were before that morning. Where were you when you first heard the news? I had just stumbled out of bed and wandered down to the bathroom in the dorm, heard the TV on in my RA's room and they were talking about the Twin Towers being gone. I wasnt coherent enough to completely comprehend that until after coming back out of the bathroom at which point i ran back down to my room and turned on the TV and saw what the rest of our nation saw that day. The United States changed that day. We no longer were a nation that went about our daily business thinking that we were safe and nothing bad would ever happen to us. Yes we had been attacked previously at the Twin Towers (We did basically nothing to respond to that by the way), but we had long since forgotten. That morning we found out the level of deep hatred some of the rest of the world held for our nation and the things we stand for. We were attacked on our soil, with our resources, killing innocent Americans who were just going about their work trying to provide for their families, also killing innocent Americans that were trying to rescue those people in those building.

What changed for you that day?

The attackers wanted to change America. They accomplished that in a very large way. One of the big things that happened was we became a united nation. We all came together and said prayers for those who were lost, we cared for our neighbors, we appreciated family a little bit more, and oh so many more things. We became united under the United States Flag and proudly displayed that we were Americans and we would not back down when we are faced with adversity. Just like the old flag that said "Dont tread on me" with the picture of the coiled rattlesnake, we stood up and said we wont stand for this type of thing and will strike back when you strike us. We stood behind our leaders as we struck back at those that struck us first. We knew the reason for our fighting and pursuing those that attacked us. They had caused our nation pain and we wanted justice for that pain, and were ready to do what it took to bring those who hurt us to justice. We would never be able to travel an airline with the same "ease" that we did previously.

Has that feeling persisted in the US?

NO! As time progessed we all went back to the way things were previously. We were back to not caring for our neighbors, family wasnt as big for us anymore, and most importantly the American flags we were proudly displaying made there way back to being stored in our closets. We no longer were "Proud to be an American", we were just Americans.

It is interesting to think back on those times now as we are approaching the elections this year. We are now engaged in a battle for the Presidency. And it is certainly a battle. The two camps are clearly divided and fighting the other for the Presidency. We no longer care that we are all Americans and we need to be striving to better our nation as a whole, it now becomes a matter of well my candidate says that they will do the most for me. We attack the other candidate on things that have no relevance to the wonderful nation in which we live. The other candidate may have some good views on things, they may not but we are against them from the start solely because of them being the candidate for the other party.

There are a lot of issues that we need to address in our nation, the candidates each have their own ideas for dealing with these issues. The big ones of course being the energy crisis and the war. Our nation has forgotten the reasons we went overseas to pursue those that lashed out at us by killing our citizens. We have forgotten the evil man that was the leader of the one country, we have forgotten the numerous attempts by the UN to check his country for WMDs where he basically dictated to the UN where they could check and where they couldnt.

We as a nation have come so far in the last 7 yrs. We have also regressed back in a lot of ways. As we look back on the last 7 yrs and look to the future, are we truly going to change the way our nation thinks? Are we going to change the way our nation acts? Are we going to once again become Americans united with the best interest of our nation at heart? I really hope that we are able to do those things, I am not going to be stupid in thinking it is certainly going to happen. Sadly I almost feel that it is going to take another event like the horrible events of that September morning 7 yrs ago for our nation to once again become united as Americans.

What are your thoughts/reflections on these last 7 yrs?