Constant vigilance. Be aware. Be safe.
******
It has been 10 years. It feels so distant. It feels like a lifetime ago, and yet, I almost remember that day in its entirety. 9/11 flipped the world around, especially for the high school graduating class of 2002. I don't say that because it was my senior year, or to make us sound more important than we really are. But we were the first adolescents to turn into adults post-9/11. Our academic futures, our careers and our political stances were all shaped by what happened on 10am Eastern Time that morning.
My creative writing teacher told us, a few months afterwards, that he thought that this event would be our Vietnam. We were silent in our thoughts; politically correct, I supposed. But while our voices were nonexistent, our actions said everything. A year later the United States entered into enemy turf preemptively. I wonder, had it not been for the attack on American soil, would we have had enough troops to enter a foreign territory?
Yes, our world has changed dramatically since it happened. Do you remember what it was like before this? Sadly, I cannot. All I can remember are reds, oranges and yellows. No working bathrooms in underground subways. System-wide "emergency" drills in college. The randomly parked bomb squad van near the school's stadium. The paranoia of going to beloved landmarks. The fear of losing family and friends to a Lo-Fi massacre.
Are we safer now than we were before? Will we ever get that sense of security back? All I know is that I'm hoping nothing happens tomorrow or ever again. Both sides cannot continue to devolve. No God would want this for any of His people. No economy can financially support the hate. But human nature innately forces us to defend our rights and privileges. Everyone loses, no one wins.
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