The events that are occuring in our nation are extreemly upsetting and distrubing. On Tuesday night, September 11th I had to write a paper for my freshman writing seminar. We were supposed to write about a childhood experience that we now viewed differently. Here is a draft of the essay I wrote. I don't know if it's any good but I just wanted to share. If any of you have anything you'd like to say I'll be happy to post it on this site just let me know. Also make sure you go down to the very bottom of the page even if you don't read my essay.
How do you write about a trivial childhood experience when the World Trade Center lies in a burning heap in the center of Manhattan? The experiences I view differently now? Every history class I’ve had that’s preached the invincibility of the United States and the nature of warfare. In a matter of minutes Pearl Harbor became much more than history. Oklahoma City, the crash of a plane off the coast of New York a few years ago, even Columbine, seem suddenly insignificant. Today I witnessed events that could change the world. This will be a chapter in future generations’ textbooks. Today I could have seen the beginning of the end of America’s omnipotence.
My entire life I have been taught, and believed in, the greatness of America. Throughout elementary school the lessons taught were supported wonderfully by American dominance in the Gulf War. I remember looking up as a Gulf War veteran walked through the lobby of my Elementary school. We all sat cross-legged, in awe of this perfect example of American invincibility. In middle school I said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the national anthem full of love for my country. We played the stock market game and marveled at the power and complexity of the United States’ financial system.
Not until High school did my idealistic view of our country began to crumble. Lessons on the not-so-great Christopher Columbus in 9th grade gradually led to our in depth discussions on current political fraud and the problems with an increasingly partisan government. But despite all our doubts and insignificant arguments there still lay an unfaltering sense of security. I even remember saying just a few weeks ago, when discussing Bush’s proposed missile defense shield, “but it doesn’t protect us against the real threat, terrorism.” Even while I spoke these words I never dreamed that anything would actually happen. No one did.
Now, looking back, I realize my error and naivety, but how could I have known any better? This is the first great crisis of my generation. Before 9/11 all we knew of as a threat to national security was the Oklahoma City bombing, of war we knew only our countries supreme dominance in the Persian Gulf. The idea, built up carefully throughout my entire life, of an indestructible United States has come crashing down in one single day. And, as bad as it seems now, what if it happens again tomorrow, or the day after?
My whole generation has been transformed. My friends have seen commercial jets slam into the Twin Towers from their dorm windows. Another friend’s away message reads, “I can see the pentagon burning but we’re all ok.” Today, instead of a Chemistry lecture, I watched 150 stories of the symbol of American capitalism crumble to the ground.
I am not the only one who is seeing old experiences in a new light, my generation, and perhaps the entire nation, is. The greatness of America, a fact that has been taken for granted since the end of WWII, is now coming into question. I now find myself in a world with no solid enemies. There is no one leader to hate or one country on which to declare war. All the rules of war have changed. To hate an entire religion and culture would make us no better than the Nazis. To respond with force against anyone will only waste more innocent lives. To do nothing opens the door to the downfall of our nation.
But, as our national sense of safety is being torn down I am seeing something else rising up from the ashes. For the first time in my life I see my country facing a serious and truly dangerous threat, but I also see a unity of all Americans that I have never seen before. Our nation is once again being tested. This horrible act of terrorism is testing whether this “nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.”
Today will be a day etched in my mind for the rest of my life. There will be countless times that I look back on today and reflect. Reflect on how the events of today have affected me, my family, my community, and my nation. But, our new found togetherness gives me hope; hope that I will look back on today from a bright future. We have all had our childhood memories of an infallible, invincible, nation shattered. Now we will all pick up the pieces together. Our nation has faced other huge obstacles and only grown stronger in overcoming them. I know that, “these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
