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Sept. 9, 2002
Your thoughts: September 11, 2002
This forum is for the Blair community to share their thoughts on the one year anniversary of September 11, 2001.
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Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:57 am
Montgomery Blair High School's Online Student Newspaper
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We should continuue the war on terrorism
I had to get screened on planes
[We need to] understand that it happened for a reason. Make sure that it doesn't happen again. [Be] more wary of the government.
Heighten security, keep a lookout
More careful and I pay more attention to the news
I'd like to remember all the families [who lost relatives].
We're supposed to stand strong for our country. We're supposed to be brave about it and strong. Whoever did it is gonna have to pay one way or another sooner or later.
[Wes should] not [have] a moment of silence, a day of rememberance. All classes should talk about it.
I don't feel as safe, knowing that anything could happen at anytime.
In honor we should have some sort of silent period, and we should all sign a banner and send it to New York
More aware that life is short, you can wake up dead tomorrow
We should discuss ways to make sure it doesn't happen again. Maybe we should try to raise some money.
I'm more proud to be an American now. I appreciate that I live in America now.
They should rebuild the towers.
Get over it. No one wants to see the depressing stuff on television.
Americans have showed up and showed how stupid Americans they are.
It didn't really affect my life that much.
Some kids lost their parents and it's not right they have to go to school.
I'm more proud because it shows how good our country can come together, but in a way I'm mad because it took something like that for the country to come together.
The twin towers.
Bush and Tony Blair going to the UN is right.
My uncle worked in the pentagon and he has since retired. We still fly a lot.
I think on 9/11 they should show footage from the attacks and show reactions from people then and now.
My list really hasn't changed much.
I think we should have no school on 9/11/.
It hasn't really affected my life much.
I definitely think that in the space where the World Trace Center was, there should be some sort of memorial. Not necessarily another building, but there definitely should be a commemoration. Maybe putting some green space, like a park.
The United States has done comparable acts to September 11th, only worse. The terrorists killed 3000 of our innocent civilians. We killed at least a hundred thousand back in 1945, not using entires planes, but small bits of reactive metals dropped from those planes. If New York or Washington D.C. had been nuked by a foreign power, then it really would be a big deal! The world may or may not have contained life by this point in time. Had it been a smaller nuclear country like Iraq or Pakistan, they would've been totally and utterly obliterated, and the U.S. would of course taken considerable losses. Had Russia accidentally launched a nuke (not inconceivable with the decaying state of their armed forces), it would be the end of the world. But we weren't nuked. Nothing fundamental has really changed. Sure, airplane security is going to be tougher from now on, but it's really our fault that it was lax from the get go. Terrorists didn't build their own airplanes and fly them over here to crash into buildings, or used a home-built nuke, or what have you. They simply used our resources against us, and it's partially our fault that we were correctly defended against these kinds of attacks.
In summary, September 11th was of course a bad event to the people of this country. But it is overshadowed by all the horrors of the past and even the present. It should be remembered, but we must not obsess. Life will go on. It is only when life does not go on is when we really and truly have a reason to be worried (for example, a large scale nuclear war).
I also feel anger towards "Bandwagon Patriots." It's one thing to take pride in your country, but it's entirely another to go around yammering about patriotism and freedom. This practice of using "feel-good" words is just a way of avoiding the real issue, and actually makes matters worse, which leads to my next comment.
All of this wonderful pride and patriotism leads way to evils almost as bad as what happened on September eleventh. While everyone was feeling a mixture of anger, sadness and shock, the ever-vigilant members of Congress and the people occupying the White House were hard at work. Unfortunately, the work they turned out was the not-so-aptly named "Patriot Act". The name of this Act implies that it is for the good of America, and beneficial to the patriotic souls of those who inhabit it. However, once closer examined, the Patriot Act encompasses a frighteningly high amount of violations of civil liberties. The sheer nerve of the legislators to force this unconstitutional garbage down the throats of law-abiding citizens makes my blood boil. I could delve deeper into this issue, but not now.
Another topic that I take issue with is the naming of September eleventh as "Patriot Day." Besides The Patriot Act, this is one of the worst things to come of the tragic events of last fall. The word Patriot inspires pride and morale among citizens. This is normally a good thing, however, recently it has been inspiring violence and terrorism against anyone who is deemed "Un-Patriotic". The actions of terror against American Muslims immediately after September eleventh should have been enough to stop the government from encouraging people to take sides against their fellow citizens. Nowadays, anyone who is critical of the government or even is merely a foreign-born citizen is slapped with the "Un-Patriotic" label and not given a chance to say otherwise. The whole purpose of this country and the Constitution that governs it is to continually make changes and revisions to the system. If no one points out these changes and allows for the opportunity to improve the system, the system will get outdated and possibly corrupted. Think of what would happen if car-makers stuck with the Model-T for a century, with no improvements like safety belts or anti-lock brakes. The people who brand fellow citizens of being "Un-Patriotic" are being hypocrites who are more deserving of the label themselves.
Just don't dismiss it. Don't mention it all the time, but don't forget. Just remember I guess.
Finally I'm starting to notice more international issues and starting to be more concerned about it.
We shouldn't go to war because it's just like Bush is trying to cover up his mistake.
I'm move cautious. I don't fly at all because my mom won't let me.
What can we do? That's something I never really thought about.
It changed a lot, especially when I went to New York and saw Ground Zero. It makes your life change because it makes you stop and think."
I think we should have a memorial day for it, but there's not really much we can do.
It's kind of made me stop and think what if it was me or what if it was someone I cared about. It makes me enjoy life a little more.
I have no idea. I haven't heard any solution that will actually work in my mind.
As a whole, my life hasn't really changed because I didn't know anyone who was directly effected but when I think back on it, it was really sad.
We shouldn't go to war because enough people have already died.
Makes you care about the people you care about more.
We shouldn't start war. We'll kill all those innocent people along with the bad guys.
I don't really feel secure because it can happen any time now. It's definitely effected our lives.
I think we shouldn't have school. It should be a holiday.
I don't really feel it has changed my life.
The time when the first and second planes hit we should have a moment of silence.
I start to appreciate things I took for granted. At the same time, we tend to forget things, so it takes a tragedy to put things in perspective.
We need to find the people who are responsible for this.
What is going to happen next?
It makes it more terrifying to go to a popular building.
First of all we need to find the people who are responsible for this.
In my opinion..that would be in favor of the terrorist..having a holiday is the same as saying "Hey...you guys did a terrible thing...so now we're gonna have a holiday for it"
We can't show them that we're stopping life for a day for what they did...but rather show them we're strong and we'll continue life normally
And as for that comment about nuking bin Laden, I think there's something wrong with that. He was doing what he thought was right, and although he was actually doing something wrong, we can't really blame him. Maybe he's... uh... unstable up there. He probably grew up thinking that America's bad, and we can't change that. I mean, everyone makes mistakes, and they're not always small mistakes. People die because of those mistakes. Unfortunately, thousands of people died because of the mistake that bin Laden made. We should try to reconcile instead of bombing each other to death. Of course, that's just an idea... Others may think as they please...
What we must do is unite together. We must not let it get in our way, then they have one. We must move on, but still remember loved ones.
Life has changed since September 11. You cling to your loved ones...you hold them tight. You tell them that you love them so they know...so you aren't left wondering.
I dunno if many people saw me today or not-I know my friends did, but I was the girl with the American flag and the Greek flag intertwined on her back, with the words "4 LIFE" underneath. I got weird looks from a few people, and I have to say that "what the hell is so weird about this?" I'm happy to be alive and happy that my loved ones are alive and I'm happy to be Greek American, 4 LIFE! I don't find anything weird about that. I don't think I'll ever get over the thought that I will carry to my dying day-exactly a year ago, in AP English, turning on the tv and seeing the airplane in one tower and seeing the other plane fly into the other tower-the horror i felt, the absolute, sheer sheet of terror that engulfed me that very moment. And after that, I remember everything about that day. Where I was. What I was wearing. What stall in the bathroom I got into to call my parents. Calling up my sister's school to make sure she was ok. I can go on and on and on. This time last year? I was at my mom's work, watching the tv with my sister, the same images over and over and over and over burned into my brain for the rest of my life. The little Orthodox Church that got crushed at the foot of the towers-the icon that was saved from in there. Oh dear God there are no words. Today, I am proud to be alive and proud to have my loved ones and friends around me. To me, all the innocent people that died that day were heroes. Today, we are in a way heroes because we have realized what life really means to us. For me, like I said, this means: Greek American 4 LIFE.
-Respectfully, Dan
This is infact true. Our stength as a nation is lower now than it is in a time of peace.
I have been effected by September, 11th in many ways both spiritually and emotionally. This is my only word of advice, "Live for today because you never know what tomorrow may hold".And I am out. Please email me if you feel a different way. I would love to known your opinion or what you ahev to say based upon what I stated.
religion) and WE KNOW Osama is there...haven't you seen the tapes?? No other place looks like that...I mean that"land of dirt" behind him while he's mocking the U.S. looks like (AND IS AFGANISTAN) so what do you think we should have done?? Twiddle or thumbs and just relax??? Or take some action!!
and I'll say this again the U.S. was screwed with FIRST. Do you think we like spending this money to keep all the [expletive] at bay??? NO!! but it's gotta be done so they (as in the TALIBAN...won't do it again) and further more Osama is like the ONLY person that could afford to mess with us (and then have the nerve to hide in a cave like a coward) and don't give me that snide "respectfully" crap either. You insinuated that I was ignorant so I have no reason to reply...but I am to clear all this up...and my opinion is MINE. I do respect yours,(but it's a little childish to be name calling in a school discussion....) that's all I have to say.......
TRUTHFULLY YOURS--S.M
P.S.--
WHO WE ARE FIGHTING: TALIBAN AND AL QUEDA
WHY: BECAUSE THEY BOMBED US FOR NO REASON AND NOW WE MUST CONTROL THEM LIKE THEY ARE CHILDREN THAT DON'T "PLAY WELL" WITH OTHER COUNTRIES....THAT DON'T FEEL THE NEED TO EXECUTE WOMEN ON THE FIELD
AS A HALF TIME SHOW AT A SOCCER GAME....watch CNN or MSN and you might beable to see the tapes.
Avoid the use of profanity, including slightly-masked words (for example, if "orange" were a swear word, or***e would also be unacceptable). If we're in a nice mood, we'll filter your comment and post it; if we're not, or if the comment is beyond repair, we'll just delete it.
What comes to mind when i think of september 11th is that were not an invincible country as ppl think we are. we can be harmed. and the people that died are proof of that.
what we should do about september 11th is just remember what happened. theres not more for what we can do. things are easier said than done. like saying add more security, over time it will begin to slack off. all we can do is look back and remember.
Not many things have changed...some people think so, but i dont. Were still cant get over differences between people and still judge people before we know them. like now, we think any muslim or arab or islamic person is a terrorist. we're still pretty much holding onto that arrogance we had on september 10th. the only thing i say that has changed is people's carefulness of their own lives...
again this post may be an ignorant one to some ppl, but its just my view...
Btw, “we respect everyone’s religion”? Tell that to the 80+ victims of hate crimes who were killed or maimed as a result of the immediate backlash after September 11. I’m not saying that you would support this, but it’s extremely to important to acknowledge this fact, and how none of them received the benefits that other victims did. PS. Look at both American and Arab news channels and take every story with a grain of salt before making judgements and jumping to conclusions.
I will start off with your first idea, the analogy of you punching me in school. I can live with the first sentence, but the second part, "Would you like the principal to wait a week or two and just chalk it up to "being an accident" and letting me get away with it???" does not really go along with the way the real-life situation has been carried out. Here is my version, which I think is closer to reality. Say that one of your friends punched me in my class, which can be equated with Osama telling his soldiers to attack civilians in America. In this situation, my class is the U.S., and the Principal is the U.N. Okay, so now my teacher(Bush) is mad, and wants to find whoever told your friend to hit me. So instead of waiting, consulting the Principal and trying to actually locate you, he decides that one of your classes(Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, etc) is where you're hiding. He picks your English class(Afghanistan), and proceeds to kill your teacher(the Taliban), after he says he doesn't know where you are. Bush tries to look in all the closets(caves), but you manage to leave the class and go into hiding somewhere else in the school(the world). And yet Bush is not deterred, he keeps on killing/bombing your English class until he is satisfied that you are either gone or dead. Now, that may not be a very complete version, but I think it is much more comprehensive than yours. I don't see how I implied that the attacks were an accident, as you said "just chalk it up to "being an accident"", and I also in no way think that we should let anyone get away with it.
On to your next point, "a war against the U.S. for no reason (I mean PLEASE, religious reasons??" While I agree that religion is absolutely no reason for an attack such as this, I take offence at the idea that religion is a trivial value to fight for. The main reason that the U.S. was created was for independence from the strict religious practices of England. And all of England supported the Crusades for purely religious reasons. The Crusades, I might point out, were much more terrible than the attacks on September 11th.
Moving on to your statement about why we know that Osama is Afghanistan. Before I talk about this, I'd like to let you know that I do believe that Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan. I also believe that he left quite some time ago, probably a few days after the attacks. The tapes(which yes, I have seen on TV) have no dates and/or locations labels. Let's look at your opinion of why Osama is in Afghanistan: "WE KNOW Osama is there...haven't you seen the tapes?? No other place looks like that...I mean that"land of dirt" behind him while he's mocking the U.S. looks like (AND IS AFGANISTAN)" I do not understand how the "land of dirt" shows that he is in Afghanistan. Again, I am not questioning that those tapes were probably filmed in Afghanistan, I merely fail to see how you can deduce his location from a backdrop of rocks and dirt. If you believe that Afghanistan is the only place with large dusty areas, you are mistaken.
"so what do you think we should have done?? Twiddle or thumbs and just relax??? Or take some action!!" I definitely take issue with this statement. In response, I offer you this statement by Lao-tzu: "Do you have the patience to wait till the mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?" When Bush decided to attack Afghanistan, the mud had not yet settled, and we didn't really know what we were doing. We attacked out of anger, because we needed to attack someone to save face.
"Do you think we like spending this money to keep all the [expletive] at bay???" Honestly, yes, I believe that Bush is taking advantage of the situation to get his way politically. The Patriot Act never would have been passed if it were not for the events of September 11th. The Republican administration is pushing farther and farther against civil liberties and even tried to ignore Congress and declare war on Iraq. Bush probably wouldn't even have been a very interesting president if it weren't for the attacks. Now he'll go down in the history books, for better or for worse.
"and further more Osama is like the ONLY person that could afford to mess with us" Well, to begin with, this is blatantly false. It really isn't that expensive to send over a few people and fly planes into buildings. All together it was probably under $100k. That's really not that expensive. I do agree in a way though, since it is hard to find people devoted to their faith enough to sacrifice themselves for what they believed in.
" and don't give me that snide "respectfully" crap either." Any response I write to this will probably be taken as sarcasm, and thus, I will let it go.
"WHO WE ARE FIGHTING: TALIBAN AND AL QUEDA WHY: BECAUSE THEY BOMBED US FOR NO REASON" To clear up a few minor points, we were not bombed by anyone. Flying a plane into a building is not a bomb, but this is not very important. The Taliban never attacked us, or did anything to provoke us, other than not revealing the location of bin Laden, which they probably didn't even know at that point. If an American citizen committed a crime against a foreign citizen, do you think the U.S. would turn that person over to the other country? Well, they wouldn't. For evidence towards this, read the article in this Sunday's Washington Post, on the front page of the Metro section, titled "Russian Hurt In Crash Sues U.S. Diplomat". Pursuing al Quaeda is something that is definitely worthwhile, but the way we are attempting to fight right now can be summed up with this quote by Arthur Sokoloff: "Imagine a boxer coming into the ring, expecting to meet his opponent face to face. Instead, he finds himself in a ring filled only with fog. He swings wildly, but makes no contact with anything. His force is dissipating, and there is little he can do."
"NOW WE MUST CONTROL THEM LIKE THEY ARE CHILDREN THAT DON'T "PLAY WELL" WITH OTHER COUNTRIES" This is contradictory to everything else you've said. When children don't play well with others, we don't immediately annihilate them, we send them to the principal, or isolate them, or give them medication. Al Quaeda definitely should be punished, prefferrably eradicated, but the Taliban never attacked us. There were definitely other solutions than bombing their country and needlessly killing civilians. Also, your comment about executing women on TV is amusing. When Timothy McVeigh was executed recently, the execution was broadcast on CCTV for about a hundred people. These people, mainly relatives of McVeigh's victims, watched the killing merely for satisfaction. This can be supported by saying, "McVeigh's crimes were much worse than those of the Afghani's who were executed." But who are we to judge the severity of another nation's punishments? The U.S. is practically the last of the civilized nations not to have abolished the death penalty, and because of that we are looked at as barbaric, sadistic hicks by most of the world.
"watch CNN or MSN and you might beable to see the tapes." Interestingly enough, I was watching CNN at about 2AM last night, and they played the tape of bin Laden in a tent with his friends, talking about the attacks.
-Dan
We're giving up basic freedoms in order to fight 'terrorists,' and all for some futule consolation of security. I can think of 10 different ways to hide a bomb on a plane, and a terrorist who might actually do it could probably think of a lot more.
We should also put this into perspective... Only around 3000 people died on 9/11.. Being roughly equivalent to a 10% increase in car accident fatalities over a single year. If even 50% more people died in car crashes every year, would there have been such a response from the government?
Would a 10% increase in car crashes have plunged the economy into ruin, and inflated the military's duties so that they're on alert for rogue car dealerships?
There are some 35,000 homicides every year, and September 11 once again represented about 10% of that number. Why aren't all homicide victim's families accorded the support and charity given to the victims if 9/11? Are they any less deserving? Why isn't there a silverchips forum to discuss their misfortune? Heck, why not 10 silverchips forums?
Because of all the people that died, and all the cowardly people who had the guts to do such a un human kind of think, it just makes you think!!!!!!!!
Whay did the terrirost do what they did, and for what?
That is the quetion...we need to stop what we're doin and do somethin about it!It's stupid how we're wasting our lives here just lookin back at 9/11.I mean you think thats gonna help???
HELLO!!!
Its not!
So help this world out and do somethin!
political situation in USA.
I have two sons who wonder apart of me why American people voted for
this incredible president or why do not vote and they give the opportunity to such people become government.
What did I see? Through the television. I saw a film of an airplane hit one of the twin towers and disappear inside it. I remember no explosion upon impact. I remember Watching both towers burn, flames and smoke rising into the air.
Just like everyone else I deeply feel effected by events that took place on September the 11th 2001. The events of that day touched people from every walk of life some for better, most for worse.