How do you feel about 9/11 nine years latter?

I listen to a fair amount of talk radio much of it on KDKA for the local issues that I would like to learn more about. Just a short time ago I heard the current person on air asking if his listeners thought September 11th had made America better or worse.

His name is Dimitri Vassilaros and he is of a strong Libertarian bent. In his opinion September 11th has made the country much worse because of the rights that we have given up in the name of Home Land Security under laws like the Patriot Act. He disdains the fact that we have so many thousands of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. He asks who is to pay for all of them. He thinks that as long as the rest of the world leaves us alone that we should stop meddling in their affairs and let them run their countries as they see fit.

Now this is topic that has filled thousands of books and could fill thousands more and could be debated until the second coming and not be resolved to everyones satisfaction. So I will not attempt to do so in a single blog entry. I will however give my opinion on the question asked by Dimitri.

I tend to agree that we have lost some of our freedom since September 11th 2001 and I have to say that I'm not the least bit happy about it. I feel that with each thing we give up that we allow the terrorists to obtain their objectives just a little more. This doesn't make me happy either. I find that I can't completely agree with the "you leave us along and we will leave you alone" policy either.


You see I remember that day just as clearly as I do yesterday. I remember watching on Television as the second tower was struck feeling like I had been kicked in the gut. Thinking of the terror those people in the building must be experiencing and praying that they would somehow make it out safe. When I watched the first tower fall I wept and I prayed. When the second tower fell I did the same. I listened in horror as I learned that the Pentagon had been hit by a plane and that a plane had been brought down not from from Pittsburgh.

Like many others I wondered what was next. Was there more to come? Would other types of attacks begin? I had been calling friends and family both local and around the country. I look back on that day and am amazed that I was able to get through to all of them even a few thousands of miles away. It was the first time I had experienced something so surreal that affected my life directly. I had a small understanding of what it must have felt like to my parents generation when the word came that Pearl Harbor had been attacked.

So how do I feel about September 11th nine years latter? I can tell you that I spend the rest of that day hugging loved ones and thinking about the people in those planes, those towers and the Pentagon. I grieved for the victims and went to bed in despair.

The next day I watched the news coverage still hopping that there would be a number of stories of miraculous discoveries of people being pulled from the rubble. Perhaps entire sections of the building having pockets where groups of people had survived and were waiting for rescuers to open a path to get them food and water until they could be reached. I watched and I waited and those stories never came.

I watched live news feeds from Arab countries where people danced in the street cheering as the towers fell and chanting "Death to America". A small flame began to burn within me, one that soon turned into a raging fire of hate. Being a Christina I know that hate is bad and can indeed lead to the "dark side" of human beings. None the less I could not help having those feeling. I watched in the coming days and weeks and questioned why the government hadn't done something. I wanted them to strike back at those that had done this to us and I wanted them to strike hard. I latter saw the wisdom that we didn't allow ourselves to unleash holy terror on the world like a wounded animal.

So here we are on the ninth anniversary of September 11th and we pause mark it passing yet again. This year there is hope in the form of a new structure taking form at the site of the Trade Center Towers. What will be the tallest building in the United States is under construction. Much as I dislike large crowded cities I will make a point to visit it when it opens. For you see nine years had somewhat diminished the hate within me but that flame still burns. I would like to stand at the highest point I can get to in that building in defiance of those that attacked us.

I have felt great pangs of hurt at times as the attacks of September 11th have been used for political purposes which has been done by both dominant political parties. I would like to return to the feeling we had in the days following the attacks when we were all just "Americans".

As for the future, I would like to see my country return to it's Judeo Christina roots and follow more closely the documents upon which the county was founded. The Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. I would like us to continue to welcome people from all over the world to come and share in our wealth and our freedom. I expect them to assimilate into the American culture. Not forgetting where they came from or their heritage rather teaching their children of it and telling them that they came to this land because it offered a better life and that being here means that they now live under our laws which are what has made this such a wonder of freedom not seen before in the history of the world. That as Americans we are not African-Americans, Arab-Americans or Mexican-Americans but just Americans. We need to restore fiscal sanity and greatly reduce the size and influence of government on the citizens. Perhaps then we can devote the resources needed to protect the country from the likes of these groups that want to destroy us.

If we can do that we can and would be justified in sending a message to the rest of the world that we will not tolerate these attacks on our lives and our freedoms. That we will hunt down and kill those who perpetrate these acts against us no matter where they are or who protects them.

I think that right now we should be sending a message to countries like Iran and others who finance those poor and uneducated among them to kill themselves if necessary to take American and other western culture lives that we will hold them responsible. In particular I think we should make it abundantly clear to them that if we are attacked with a weapon of mass destruction be it nuclear, chemical or biological that we will unleash the full wrath of the United States Military on them removing their entire country and it's population from the earth if we have to. I feel we have that capability without having to use nuclear weapons.

With the above being made blatantly clear that they are facts not idle threats I think we should turn our resources to develop technology to free ourselves from being dependent on any of these countries for materials to sustain our economy. We can then use our wealth as a wedge by ignoring those that would enslave their people and deny them basic rights that we feel all human beings should have. That is how I feel that we should approach dealing with the likes of Iran.

So until we can achieve these goals let us bow our heads and pray to God that he will allow us to elect leaders that will keep us safe from those away from our shores that wish to do us harm. That we ask for his forgiveness for our own sins and that he will protect all of the brave men and women around the world that labor under the stress and danger of war keeping us safe tonight. And let us not forget the families of those that perished on that terrible day nine years ago asking that God will comfort them at their loss and bring us all together again as Americans.