Journalism / Welcome To History (Analysis)
WELCOME TO HISTORY
That's what I said on September 11, 2001, standing there with my boyfriend and other friends at Price Chopper. Noting that skies were eerily empty and quiet.
No planes now.
Everyone who was alive that night, is a part of history. We all witnessed something either firsthand, or on television, the unimaginable. Evil incarnate. Unspeakable horror and terror. Tragedy unheard of on our shores, in such a gruesome manner.
And as Walter Cronkite used to say, And you were there. Yes we were.
I had a friend call from Michigan to find out if I was all right. She had no way of knowing that I was 3 1/2 hours away from it. Yet, it is quite likely that the planes that were hijacked in Boston, flew right over my house, on its way to destiny.
How many times do I hear planes overhead and see them? More than I can count. In college, the school is not far from the airport, and looking out the window, we could see planes either ascending into the sky or starting their descent to land. This is a sight we see everyday, we don't think that something like what happened, would be the result.
An ironic thought: Years before my father's death, he once spoke about something we forget about: wonder. We were driving along the turnpike and there was a plane overhead, and he was telling me that people don't even notice planes anymore. We take them for granted. No one looks at a plane in the sky and wonder how it flies, how it manages to stay up in the air. In the 19th Century, people took ships and trains, and the journey took weeks, even a couple of months, whereas now, hop on board a plane and arrive in less than a day. Big difference.
Even watching the memorials and specials on t.v., the former Mayor of NY, Rudy Gulliani, admitted that we are not completely safe from terrorism, that there is probably some plan to try something again, to try and top this one.
How could we prevent it from happening again? Do we really need to be on an anti-terrorism committee to figure it out?
How about if we become extremely politically incorrect for a moment? Agree or disagree with me if you like, but in my opinion, it seems more of a reasonable solution, then an unreasonable one.
How about this for starters: We stop allowing people from the Middle East to migrate here? Look at how well it works out when we do .. they attack and kill us. Our own GOVERNMENT trained Bin Laden. Our own PRESIDENT has had business dealings, oil business dealings with the guy's BROTHER.
I know, I know, they're not ALL like that. They're not ALL terrorists. Fine.
How many more lives are we willing to risk to wait and see if that statement is true? It cost over 2,000 lives five years ago, because we gave those other foreigners the benefit of the doubt. We taught them to speak English, taught them to fly airplanes, and look what happened.
We can't just mourn our dead. We have to become angry. We're supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world, yet, terrorists got past security, got on these planes, brutally killed pilots, co-pilots, flight attendants, and anyone else they needed to, to get control over the plane, and then proceeded to kill more people in those moments, then military personnel were killed at the initial attack on Pearl Harbor.
We are considered The Free World . And many nations hate us because of it. We seem to forget that, when people from other places are being waltzed through Customs.
It would be interesting to find out how much, if ANY background check, was done on these terrorists. Look at how much information was discovered about them afterwards. Had we had even a fraction of that information, they would have been turned around sent back home.
Perhaps that's what needs to be done here. Not just limiting what can be brought on board. How about limiting who we let in this country in the first place? Or do what used to be done when immigrants used to come over, like my great-grandparents, at the turn of the 20th Century ... detain them .. quarantine them .. thorough background security checks and make sure we are not allowing our own doom to come into our country.
Whose country is this anyway? It's OURS, not theirs to do with as they wish. How dare these people come into OUR country, and decide who lives or dies? HOW DARE THEY !
Well they did. They are to blame, most assuredly. But, as much I hate to say it, so are we. Our government was warned, not just months before, try YEARS before. By someone that became a joke, but during hearings, was deadly serious. And no one paid attention to what he had to say.
His name is Oliver North. He warned the government back in 1988. A name no one was familiar with, or even sure how to pronounce, but he knew it. The Iran-Contra hearings. The accusation that they were trading weapons for hostages, and that Reagan knew all along, and he claimed he didn't. When Oliver North testified, he said, I'm afraid for my life because of this man. His name is Osama Bin Laden. And he was asked to repeat the name a few times, because it was unfamiliar to the panel.
Too bad everyone was too busy making Oliver North the butt of their jokes, instead of listening to what he had to say.
There were other warnings and other threats and they were not taken seriously. Our own government failed us. And seven years later, they really don't seem a whole lot smarter.
The Presidential elections are coming up. We, the people, have the power to strengthen our government, or keep it weak, simply by who we vote for. None of them can get into office without us. That is why is so important to register to vote, and to actually vote. Pay close attention to what they stand for. I don't think there has ever been such a violent time since Bush became President. I certainly didn't vote for the guy.
The Government doesn't seem willing or able to make the tough decisions to truly stop what is happening. So we need to do it for them. When we close the curtains November, we can make the changes we want to see happen.
Without tougher policies of who gets to come here and who doesn't, and leadership that has a clue, we might as well just sit and wait and see what and who is attacked next.
Golly, I should run for office. Of some sort.
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Whether I agree with your argument or not, I think that it could be served better by some heavy editing and rewriting.
This got off to a good start, with a personal reminiscence about the most important event of the 21st century.
Sadly, the number of grammatical errors (for example “the planes… on its way to destiny” – Plural planes should be on their way to destiny) and oddly convoluted sentences (like the one beginning “we’re supposed to be the most powerful nation in the world…”, which is far too long and unwieldy)made it difficult to read on.
Your main point is also a little cloudy – You propose closing the doors, then point out that you are of immigrant stock too. You talk about the need for stronger leaders, then seem to criticise Bush, who got in the second time off the back of his tough stance on terrorism worldwide.
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