September 11 Digital Archive

story6180.xml

Title

story6180.xml

Source

born-digital

Media Type

story

Created by Author

yes

Described by Author

no

Date Entered

2002-09-12

911DA Story: Story

My mom has Alzheimer's and lives at a nursing home, so I'd stopped by on my way to work to visit her. It's hard to understand Alzheimer's disease, it is a terrible disease. It's so sad, my mom's life now, I thought. Then I flipped on the radio and heard that just a few minutes before, a plane hit the World Trade Center.

"It must have been an awful mistake, an error, a heart attack, something," I thought to myself. When the second plane hit the tower, and I heard the shock, disbelief, and horror in the voices on the radio, I realized with a sinking feeling that someone, somewhere, had done this deliberately. It was hard to comprehend, harder than understanding a disease.

I don't know who those men were, or who the people are who hate so much and live so little. I don't understand the people who have and hold dear to the idea that murdering other people will make their "cause" better or any result better. And it's not a disease that's evil, come to think of it. Diseases just happen in life, they don't make a conscious choice to murder a person.

It's people like the men who murdered in the name of some cause who have the truly sad life--not my mom. We can never know who they really were, or listen to what possible truths they might have had to say because of the evil of their actions.

Will it help their children? History has taught us no, it does not. Will it help them as a group? History has taught us no, it does not. The U.S.A. was founded on principles of Christianity, where the old world "eye for an eye" idea of justice evolved into the "due process", "law" and "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" system of justice we have today (no, it's not perfect, but it is the best that's ever been, but that's a subject for another time).

What I do know is that I extend my sympathy and empathy to those who lost their loved ones in the attack against the U.S.A. My prayers are with you, and I know that despite your grief, you will survive and be stronger.

You know the price of freedom; would you exchange it for the tyranny of "security" like the Taliban "gave" the people of Afghanistan, or like the Nazis "gave" to the people of Germany?

I'd just like to know. Our freedom starts and stops with the expressed will of the majority, and I'm not sure the other men and women who believe in evil and death know that we are united in our will to be free.

Citation

“story6180.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 16, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/4617.