story724.xml

story724.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-06-06

The events that took place on September 11th, 2001, will be remembered forever. They not only affected the people of the World Trade buildings and the Pentagon, but people all across the nation. These events changed the lives of all American citizens.
The morning of these events, I was sitting in school, along with millions of other children, thinking it was another, ordinary day. However, I was sadly mistaken. The events that were about to take place were in the least bit ordinary. I went to my first period class, just as I always did, and then on to second period. This is where I was about to realize that this day was going down in history. At 9:00 a.m., I was sitting in a chair watching CNN, as our teacher explained to all of us what just happened. We watched the horrific sights of the attacks on the World Trade Center. We were able to watch the first attack that occurred only a few minutes before we entered the classroom. Then, as we were sitting there, we watched the second attack live. I remember the looks on the faces of my friends and classmates. None of us had ever seen anything like it before. We hoped to never see anything like it again. I will never forget the next few sights that I was about to see; they changed my life forever.
Sitting home, watching the news, later that night, I saw the most awful sights, which I have seen so far in my life. I hope to never see anything that awful ever again. There were huge explosions, hundreds of people running through the streets of New York City, with blood running down the sides of their faces, trying to escape the falling debris that was flying everywhere. Even though these sights were bad, the sights that were on the news the next day couldn't compare to the previous day. There were thousands of policemen, firemen, and even volunteers off of the streets helping to clean up as much as they could of what was left of the World Trade Buildings. They were pulling bodies out of the wreck that once stood as the tallest and proudest buildings in America. One of the most emotional parts of watching all this was to see policemen and firemen on the streets of New York City, with their hats off, and tears slowly running down their heartbroken faces. You could see the severity of the tragedy in their eyes. The thought of knowing that there were families out there, wondering if their son, daughter, husband, wife, or other family member was one of the unfortunate ones to become a victim of one of the few terrorists attacks on American soil was heartbreaking.
These events not only affected the people of New York City, but people all across the globe. The tragic events that occurred this day, will forever be remembered in the hearts of all American citizens. America has changed in many ways since this day. The United States has always been thought of as a land of freedom, opportunity, and a land of security. However, with the events that occurred, American citizens now realize that America is as vulnerable to the enemies of the world, just as other countries of the world are.
Since this horrible day, America has changed in many ways. Some for the better and others for the worse. A good thing that came out of these tragedies, if any, would have to be that now, America is not as care free with the safety of its citizens. We all take more precautions now, and this has opened our eyes to the evils of the world. One change for the worse is that since these events citizens of America live in more fear than is necessary. You cannot go about your life living in a box, fearing every part of the world. Fear is a person's biggest enemy, more than any other human or living thing. I guess the big question here is, will America ever feel safe again?