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“Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward.”
The words of President George W. Bush made tears fall from my eyes Tuesday as I watched scenes of smoke, debris and carnage on every news channel on television. It was utterly shocking to hear the harsh reality that our nation’s World Trade Center had collapsed based on a terrorist act and that the Pentagon was also attacked, as well as other key places in our country. How can something like this happen? More importantly, how are we to recover from and understand such a tragedy?
Things like this are just not supposed to happen. Terrorist attacks, although unjust and horrible, are not expected in America to such enormous proportions. Generally we hear of a fight in a high school or a death in some large city thousands of miles away from us but this is devastatingly close to us. Of course, it is common knowledge that there is not one country in this world that is exempt from pain and suffering; still, this is outrageous. It is a terrible thought that some group of people is capable of such an incident. Walking around campus it was obvious everyone was asking themselves the same questions. How could our country be this vulnerable? Are my family and friends okay? What if we go to war because of this? How could this happen? It’s something that happens everywhere and yet something no one on this earth could possibly validate as right. This nation is in the midst of falling apart and all based on a four-letter word that I as a child was taught never to use, let alone act upon. How much sense could one make from acts of hate?
Besides the heartbreak of it all, what makes this such an incredible event is that no one knows precisely who is responsible for this, no one knows where we go from here and no one knows what we should do to prevent such tragedies from reoccurring. How can anyone make assumptions of what to do if there is no sense to be made from this experience to begin with?
After shedding some tears with my eyes glued to the television I immediately called my father who was in just as much shock as I was. He told me something we can all benefit from, something truer than anything else I heard Tuesday. “All we can do now is move forward. America is a strong country as are its people. We will be able to pick ourselves up from this.” Within minutes our country had already proved how sturdy and powerful we are and will continue to be. Hundreds of firefighters, police men and women, blood donors and everyday citizens came together to do everything possible to get hold of such a horrendous occurrence. It is obvious, according to our president as well as the American people that we will move forward and we will not allow evil to take control of our nation.
As freedom was undeniably attacked this past Tuesday, there is no question about how the state of this country will be for days, if not years, to come. This is unbelievable. I am truly speechless. There seems nothing more to think of than the looming question “why?”
