Remembering 9/11- 5th year Anniversary

Today is Sept. 11, 2006- five years after the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history. Like most Americans, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on that ill-fated day. I also remember how America was affected the weeks and months following the attacks. As I commemorate this day, I send my thoughts and prayers out to all those who lost loved ones in the attacks, to the leadership of our country and to the troops who are forced to fight a war where there can be no true victory. The day also gives me cause to pause and reflect on my life since that day as well as the present state of America. 9/11 was a life changing event for most. From that day forward, I vowed I was going to be a better person. I also decided to no longer put off my life goals because life truly is way too short...As the reasons behind the 9/11 tragedy unfolded, I started looking at the way other countries viewed the U.S. Suddenly I conceived the reality that plights such as poverty, oppression and lack of education or fundamentalism (of any kind) could embitter a people enough to encourage other attacks similar to these we’d recently experienced.

The "Global War on Terror" has brought a level of consciousness to our country that our previous isolationist attitudes allowed us to suppress. Unlike tragedies such as starvation in Ethiopia/ Somalia and genocide in Rwanda, all of a sudden after 9/11, the world outside the U.S. actually held significance for the average American. Because we had a relative fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq or we were concerned about the next possible terrorists attacks, this situation affected us in ways that starvation and genocide somewhere in Africa couldn't. This HATE against America was/is a threat to the American way of life.

I wish I could take the passion that most Americans feel about 9/11 and apply to the apathy that we feel as we let millions be murdered in Darfur, even after the United Nations embattled war cry of "Never Again!" BUT, I digress... My point is simply that our lesson from 9/11 should be that we Americans must work to right our country's global and domestic wrongs and strive to be better neighbors in the global community. Then I believe that we'll actually be able to shift the tide of hatred for our country towards love (or at least tolerance), and we may actually be able to achieve the goal of changing "hearts and minds" across the Middle East and world.