nmah1008.xml

nmah1008.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-04

I was sitting in my second hour 9th grade Geometry class when suddenly the principal of my school came in, interrupting our lesson. "Can I borrow your teacher for a minute?" she asked. When Ms. Kampa returned, she pressed the button for the TV and told us the terrible news: the World Trade Center, one of the icons of American society, had been destroyed. As the TV screen slowly flickered to life, a small buzz swept throughout the classroom… What happened? Are we in a war? And, most importantly, who could have done such a thing? All throughout the day, 9/11 conversations could be heard in the halls and classrooms. When we got home, though, we got the whole story.
Later that day we attended a candlelit service at my church. During the prayer circle, one woman began to speak. As she fought tears, she told of her husband, who had recently flown to the World Trade Center for business. She hadn't heard from him since the previous evening, and she wasnt sure if he was even alive. This just reminded me all the more of the seriousness of this event.

I guess my life hasn't really changed too much since that fateful day. Although I'm not a huge fan of President Bush, his position on life after 9/11 has really impacted American society. It seems as if everyone has tried so hard to keep their lifestyle and everything the same that it really didnt change much at all; September 11th is just a memory for most of us. Even though the world has positioned a spotlight on Afghanistan and the rest of the Middle East, this event hasnt really changed many aspects of my life.

The main thing I think should be remembered has to do with one of the possible reasons for why the terrorists did this. I think that one of the reasons some other countries have a problem with the U.S. is because we're so much richer than them and we often try to help, but our attempts don't always succeed and often end up causing more problems. I believe that this may be one point the terrorists wanted to get across, however violent their method of communicating was.

I've never really been a patriotic person, and I guess September 11th didn't change that for me. After the first couple of days, I think I got over my urge to display a flag on everything I owned. After all, our family doesnt even own a flagpole! If we were to install one, it would probably carry a Swedish flag, since my family is fascinated by our Swedish heritage and I'm nearly fluent in Swedish now. However, now I better understand why so many people make the decision to display their patriotism.