story20704.xml

story20704.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-11

After 5 years, I still remember 9-11-01 as if it was yesterday. What I wrote then, I still feel now. I mourn the close to 3000 who died that day and the close to 3000 who have died since in Afghanistan and Iraq in a effort to prevent another attack. I feel that both wars are necessary to keep us free. I strongly believe that our government has stopped other attempts - ones we will never know about in an effort to keep secret our means of finding out about them.

Knowing that we are the target of those who hate our way of life means that we have to be more diligent. I hope we can keep all of our liberties alive, but I would be willing to curb some to be safe. The most important ones - from the Bill of Rights - I believe are safe. The ones that we have come to enjoy since those days in the 1780's - I think we may need to give a little on. But it won't make much difference to the people we are - Americans are the most resiliant people on earth and will adapt and find better ways that we would never have thought of prior to 9-11.

I think history will look back in another 10-15 years, see the struggles we all went through, and applaud us for our perserverance, faith, and yes the dissention of the time, because America and the world will be stronger and more peaceful. We will be better because of 9-11 and our reaction to it. And the future generations will thank us as we thank the World War II generation.

(I lived in Northern Virginia during and in the immediate years following the attacks. That area, and probably NY,NY are the ones most affected by the events. My county lost 22 people in the attacks - the most in the area. But they are stronger, closer to another, and better than before. Work required a move to the Midwest. They grieve for the day, but don't understand it as those who were directly affected by it do)