story1544.xml

story1544.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-29

I remember sitting in English class on a day that started out like any other Tuesday. Suddenly, the principal at my high school came rushing into the room and began to whisper to the teacher. Immediately, my English teacher turned on the radio. I listened as the news reported the crashing of a passenger plane into one of the World Trade Center Towers. At first, along with many other students in the class, I thought that the events could not possibly be real. We had just finished listening to ?War of the Worlds? the previous day. I thought my English teacher had somehow staged this broadcast, to place the class in the minds of the people who had originally listened to that program so long ago. Much of the U.S. population once thought ?War of the Worlds? was a real occurrence, and the consequences were dire. Unfortunately, the events wore on, and the radio reported that both of the towers had fallen. Once I arrived at my next class, and saw the report on television, I knew it was real. More than anything, I wanted to go home.

The events of September 11 made me realize how everything can be so unimportant in that instant of horror when something is terribly wrong. With the acts of one group, the American people can no longer feel safe. Our vulnerability in skyscrapers and airplanes is painfully clear. Regardless of the number of precautions that are taken to prevent a tragedy such as the events of September 11, if a person or group with enough power wants something to happen, it will. Due to this unsettling truth, the American people must give up some of the civil liberties on which this country was founded, and it sickens me.