story7358.xml

story7358.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-14

I was home sick that day, which doesn't usually happen. I had the TV running in the background and began to notice the scenes they were showing were the same. Again and again they would show an airplane running into a tall building, then smoke pouring off of it. I thought "what kind of movie is this?". I was about to turn the channel when my fever-blurred brain picked up on the fact that this was actually happening. I turned the volume up and heard the announcers in bewildered, amazed voices describing what I had just seen as a terrorist attack. Not just anywhere, but here, in my country. It was an incredibly surreal feeling. I watched it all day and still could not get the sense that it was real, that only a few states away people were dead, buildings were burning, horror had come to life. All because angry, evil people thought this would be the way to get their message across. I am so proud of my country, now more than ever, because of the way we pulled together to react to this attack. I am equally proud of our new president, George W. Bush, for how he has taken a stand and will not allow this to go unpunished. I feel sorry for the Arab-Americans who now have to live with persecution and suspicion because they look similar to the lunatics with ice in their veins. I cry for the heroes who lost their lives and the families who are left to move on with a hole in them. I pray that justice will prevail. Not only as man can deal it out, but as only God can. And that He will heal this great land to make it even stronger than it was before. Now, a year later, it is hard for me to keep the gravity of it in perspective because I haven't lost anyone, I don't have to walk by the scarred ground where buildings once stood, I don't have to work in a building that once had a hole in it. But, I pray that I will never forget. I pray nothing like it will ever happen again. I pray, I pray...