9/11 is on my mind often, not because I’m bursting with knowledge on the subject or because I have personal connections with someone physically affected by the tragedy, but rather because the whole prospect that a group of human beings could actually end the lives of not only the twin towers, but also thousands of people completely shocks and frightens me. I have to admit, I have absolutely no memory of the actually day the planes were taken over and crashed: I was 5 years old and I imagine that day seemed like any other in my eyes. But since then I have definitely learned some, if not a good amount, of information about this significant event from studying it in classes and seeing images and footage in newspapers and on television. This includes photos of the twin towers being smashed, the planes engulfed in fire, people jumping and waving flags out of the buildings windows, and, the most memorable account, a TV program with actual audio footage from inside the plane and a detailed account of what happened.
Though I am not overflowing with knowledge by any means on the topic of 9/11, I do know that a lot of people hate Americans. I can see how some view the citizens of this country as greedy, self-centered, and uninformed about the views and conditions of others in the world. How ever, not every American is like that and I find it completely unreasonable and evil to take that anger out on average citizens who have done nothing wrong. I know the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and that 5 (?) planes were taken over, one headed towards the pentagon, (which was taken over by the passengers and crashed in an empty field), 2 headed for the twin towers, (which both crashed into the towers), and the other two I think crashed somewhere in Washington DC. The immediate consequences were obviously the death of several thousand people and the destruction of the twin towers, but many things have changed because of the tragedy that affect our everyday lives. For example, when you go to the airport, you have to leave yourself more time because everyone and their luggage goes through excessive security before being allowed on a plane. The overall security of our country has been considerably tightened, for example, I was in New Orleans these past few days and when I attended the Mardi gras parades these helicopters would fly overhead, which my uncle told me has happened at every parade since 9/11. And, something everyone knows about, we invaded Iraq, which makes absolutely no sense considering the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia (Bush was president at the time.) Though these are just a few examples, I think the events of 9/11 have altered the way Americans think of their country and the way America operates.
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