There are many things about 9/11 that I won't ever forget.... one of them that sticks out almost as much as that day, were the days that followed. I had never been more thankful to attend a Christian college than in the days and months that followed 9/11. Professors prayed, cried, and were attentive to the fact that most students studies were far from priority at that point in time.
At the 1 year anniversary, one of my favorite profs, Dr Fragedakis, spent the class period reminiscing about how we, our world, and our views had changed. And then she read aloud the following that I've kept and still have in my scrapbook to this day:
Taken 9/11/02 From the Times of London by Tony Parsons:
"ONE year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting- the mass murder of thousands, live on televesion. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.
An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing - no one deserves this fate. Surely there could be consensus: the victims were truly innocent and the perpetrators truly evil.
But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year. There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country - too loud, too rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me. More than that, it turns my stomach.
America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture, language, and blood. A little over half of a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. How have we forgotten so soon? And, exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women, and children - not just Americans, but from dozens of countries - were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. How are we so quick to betray them?
What touched the heart about those who died in the Twin Towers and on the planes was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and daughter, husband and wife. And children, some of them unborn. And these people brought it upon themselves? And their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter? How?
These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the "Great Satan." The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the 3rd World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with ENORMOUS restraint since September 11, 2001.
Remeber the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you" before they were burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers.
Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum.
Remember, and realize, that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like they way they could have.
So a few al-Quaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-Ray? Please do pass the Kleenex.
So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics into a sky full of American planes? A shame, but perhaps next time they should stick to confetti.
AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a PARKING LOT. That it didn't is in of itself, a sign of its great strength.
American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq. That's what democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence fo the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abhorant abomination?
When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom loving Palestinans were dancing in the streets! America watched all of that - and never pushed the button. We should all thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world. I still find it absolutely incredible that 9/11 di not provoke all out war. No, not a "war on terrorism" but all out war. A real war.
The fundamentalists dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell," if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened up the gates of hell that you would have never had believed.
The US is the most militarily powerful nation that has ever strode the face of this earth.
The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war in Iraq may be misconceived.
But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to those wretched countries. Exactly how many democracies are there in the Middle East ore in the Muslim world? You can count them all on the fingers of one hand - assuming that you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting offenses.
I love America, yet America is hated. I gues that makes me Bush's poodle. But, I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be - rich, strong, free, open, and optimistic.
Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system. America is the best friend that this country ever had and we as a British people should start remembering that a bit more often.
Or do you REALLY think that the USA is the root of ALL evil? Tell it to the lvoed ones of the men and the women who leaped to their death from the burning towers.
Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper.
And tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire Department. To our shame, President Bush gets worse press than Saddam Hussein.
Once were were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own peopel, and set up rape camps in Kuwait. Now were are told that he likes Quality Street.
Remember, Remember, Please REMEMBER, September 11. One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed that day against America.
No, please, hear me, PLEASE, do more than remember....
Never forget."
