Originally posted by Vudak
I was a Senior at the time (well, should have been, anyway)... That day was insane.
School pretty much just stopped. We could do whatever we wanted, really. I chose to drive around to meet up with my friends at their various places of business. I've never been in so many near accidents driving around. Everywhere I went, everyone had something like those thousand yard stares of soldiers while driving around listening to the radio. I saw many, many crashes.
One of my friends worked at a Mobil. It's a hangout for some of the police in town. They were running around not sure of what to do.
The next few days were spent running a convoy to and from Stop & Shop. My friends and I pooled all the money we could together and just started filling up grocery bags full of food and water. We made several trips a night. We were far from the only ones. I have never seen such a mountain of relief items piled up at our high school. It was huge.
That Enya song, "Only Time" was playing all the time, and to this day it still makes my eyes water. It's the song that brings me back to those times.
In a way, it was a beautiful sight. The entire country - heck, almost the entire world - was pulling together. I had AOL at the time and remember reading comments from all over the world expressing condolensces, sympathy, and support. It was comforting, and heartwarming to be a human living in the Free World.
Things sure have changed in six years.
to every last one of you putting your lives on the line so I might be able to live in peace. Regardless of any disagreements we may have, I am sincerely grateful and in your debt.
This is EXACTLY the reason that we will not see another attack on American soil for at least quite a while. The perpetrators of this attack may be evil, etc, but they are not stupid. As we stand here six years later, it does fade from memory, and time IS the cure for most wounds of the soul/spirit (maybe not for those directly involved). What I'm saying is that we CAN NEVER LET THIS FADE FROM MEMORY. I would play videos of the attack EVERY DAY on prime time TV if it was up to me. The way it is now, most Americans do not feel as acutely outraged anymore (again except for those directly involved), therefore I believe that we (as a country) are living more "in fear", per se, of "terrostists". This is exactly what they tried to achieve, hence the root word "terror".
IF the towers did not fall.
IF so many weren't harmed
IF so many others did not perish in the rescue attempts
the terrorists, would still have achieved their goals. They took four jets and didi what they pleased with them and now WE ARE AFRAID(for the most part), and it is reflected in the changes we were forced to make in the way we run this great nation
. Anyone who travels in this great land knows what I mean.
Shoe X-Rays???????
Patriot Act. (its my right as a private citizen to remaion just that)
Extremely long security checkpoints (run mostly by clock punchers who aren't very attentive anyway)
What do you mean I can't even take a bottle of water onboard, now?
Now that they have put the fear in us(not making accusations, just observations) they will not attack so blatently again. Goal achieved. To do so will only strenghten our reslove, and have all of us pulling in the same direction again. Is I said, evil, not stupid they won't risk it. (reference Hiroshima/Nagasaki) not to justify the attacks on Japan, but just to show that we can only be pushed so far. After all...... we WILL put a boot in your ass, it IS the American way!