nmah1515.xml

nmah1515.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-08

To answer literally, I watched the two towers fall on the news along with millions of other Americans on that fateful morning. More importantly, I watched history being made in the downcast eyes of my peers. This event will change my generation forever; it will keep us constantly aware of the delicacy of our liberty and safety. We are the future leaders of this nation, and I hope that this event will not breed hate for the Middle East that will eventually bubble over into the horrible mistakes of the future.

My life has not changed since September 11th. We as Americans wanted to think that we would remember this event forever, that the trade towers would become the new Alamo, but it is sad how quickly our resolve has faded. Life has pretty much returned to normal. See, New York is thousands of miles from where I live, and it is difficult to relate to an event that happened a year ago, in a city I have never seen, to people I have never met. While I am by no means saying that the events of that day did not affect me, I must admit that now that the great trauma of having our nation attacked is done with, my life is largely unchanged. Month after month, flags slowly disappear from cars and homes, talks of the event vanish from the radio, and soon it will be just another event written in a history textbook.

From September 11th, I believe we as a nation need to take a greater sense of world community. Bombings and other terrorist attacks are daily events in the Middle East, but they have never received the incredible media attention that a single attack on America did. America needs to remember that we are not the only nation under attack from terror. We need to use this pain to help us sympathize more acutely with the conflicts in the East, and from this sympathy draw new resolution to end terrorism--not out of outrage and vengence for September 11th, but out of compassion for the war-torn Middle East nations.

I did not fly a flag after September 11th. Nobody flies an Israeli flag after they are viciously attacked, even though we are close allies with Israel; it just didn't feel right to do so for America. We in America are very elitist, and it seems that we use our flag not only to display unity but also our superiority over other nations. I felt that after September 11th, flying a flag would only enrage people more against the Middle Eastern nations, which is exactly the opposite reaction that the flag should have. The flag is a beautiful symbol that should inspire people to come together, and I certainly don't mind other people flying it. But it invokes too many negative emotions toward the Middle East, and that is why I choose not to fly it.