Looking back to September 11th

Sept. 11 2001, was a transformative day for the United States.  In so many ways, we are a different nation now than we were before. Some of those ways can be good, and some of those ways can be bad.

Nearly 3000 people died that day. I’m sure you remember where you were, I remember where I was. As I sat there all of 12 years old, watching the footage on TV, it wasn’t fear I felt. I don’t remember being scared at all. But I did feel something. Perhaps it was just something so bizarre that my body conjured up a bunch of emotions and threw them at me.

How often do you see that? Remember, I barely remember anything of Desert Storm, and that was hardly a significant military conflict on the scale of Vietnam or World War II. So seeing America attacked was a profoundly new thing for me.

I remember everyone speculating on who did it. Then I remember we all decided it was Bin Laden, and he took credit.

I wish to avoid politics here, but it’s a struggle. My thoughts about Sept. 11 (and why it happened) can wait for another day. But I do want to think about how we’ve changed as a country.

Take this mosque idea. People such as Newt Gingrich and others are questioning if the mosque should be built at Ground Zero. They must not realize that a mosque exists in the Pentagon, which was also attacked.

They must also forget that the mosque will be near Ground Zero, not at it. But most of all, they must forget that America sits on an ideal of total freedom. Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, whatever. Completely and always.

I believe with all my heart that no event should ever make us willing to jeopardize those freedoms. Not for security or profit or anything else. Because if you are willing to throw those away—or even reduce them—then why are we fighting wars? What’s left to protect?

Think about the lives lost. Think about the two wars. They’ve bled us dry financially and cost us so many lives.  All because of one horrible day in September of 2001.

I’m not sure why Sept.11 happened. But angry men wanted to do us harm, and they succeeded. They flew planes into buildings, attacked us at home, and we reacted. But did we react properly? I think we acted in emotion. History can tell us if we did the right things. History can sometimes not have emotion.

I’m not sure the wars were good ideas for various reasons, but defending ourselves in general is of course pivotal, in the forefront of priorities. By saying I disapprove of the wars, I am saying I disapprove of how he handled them.

I suppose the feelings of not understanding or not knowing I had as a child still sit with me today. But now, I wonder about how we’ve changed, and if we’ll come to regret this at some point. Sept. 11 was a changing day for America, but will that end up being for the best or the worst?

I offer no opinion.  This edition of the paper hits the stands September 7th, four days before the anniversary of the attacks. What do you think? How have we reacted? Good or bad?

I suppose all I can offer up is… never forget.