Thursday, September 8, 2011

9/11: The Tenth Anniversary of Losing America's Innocence by Kate Johns

With the tenth anniversary of 9/11, America and the world are reminded of how a powerful, but innocent nation was brought to it's knees for one horrible day as we left our youth, our superpower status, and our innocence behind. As a jealous, more hostile world terrorized America ruining our freedoms, and our more rich ways of living, we will always remember the 3,000 souls that died on that fateful, yet beautiful September day.

You see, on 911 not only did thousands of people die, so too did America as we knew her. America has become a less innocent place to live, as we are body probed before boarding airplanes. America has become a more watchful, yet scarier place to live. With the 9/11 anniversary arriving, America now has border patrol, vigilant police forces watching for even a sign of terrorism. America's airspace is surveyed, as are her shores, land, and roads.

We as Americans are less innocent to the horrid, nasty ways of jealous, menacing nations. We no longer think of any person as a friend, but more of a foe, unless we have lived with that person for our entire lives. Billions of lives were changed that day.

Hundreds of people knew they were going to die on 9/11, and they took action ensuring that more people did not die that horrible day. They were courageous, selfless, beautiful human beings. They were the stuff action-adventure movies are made of. They took quick action on those planes headed for Washington and New York City on 9/11. And they did it with pride of being Americans.

As I watched in horror as cable news stations started covering the first building having been crashed into with huge plumes of smoke blowing out of the building, I knew something was wrong. I was learning as many millions of Americans were learning that this crash into the World Trade Center building was not a mistake,it was a planned terrorist threat to our very freedoms.
America has never been the same since that fateful, but beautiful late summer day in September. As my husband hurried out the door, I worried  if I would ever see him again, and my thoughts were with keeping my children safe.

At that point in time, my husband was working at a local radio station, and we would be celebrating our fourteenth wedding anniversary the very next day. We never did celebrate our 14 anniversary that year. Neither did we celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary the next year. It was more important to cover the chilling news that was taking place in front of us that the World Trade Center, and our American way of life was forcefully ending.

After realizing that thousands of people died on 911, and that hundreds of people gave up their lives so that more people would not have to die, I figured celebrations were not warranted at the time.

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