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| Yes | 30% | 198 votes | Total: 666 votes | |
| No | 70% | 468 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesSeven years ago, when it happened, people were in shock. The entire country grieved over the senseless tragedy. The shock may have worn off but the emotional impact will always remain in tact for those of us old enough to remember that day. Every event in history which has had this much of an impact is remembered with potency by those of us who survived it's wake.
Ask almost any centurian if they remember Pearl Harbor. Ask any octogenarian if they can recall the day Kennedy was assassinated. Even those of us who weren't alive during these events understand their impact. The events of September 11, 2001 are exactly that kind of historically significant tragedy.
I can recall the exact moment I learned of that days events and the days that followed vividly. I was asleep when my mother woke me up with what I thought was some kind of sick joke. "A plane crashed into the World Trade Center." At the time we thought it was an accident. I was standing there watching the coverage of the event on television when the second plane struck. No sooner had the thought that this was really happening began to sink in than the first building began to crumble before my very eyes.
The song "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" describes precisely the impact that day had on me. It will never lose it's potency. Our hearts were with the families who had loved ones in those buildings or on those planes. Our prayers were fervent that survivors would be found in the wreckage. Our hearts seethed with anger at the senselessness of it all. We wanted someone to blame.
Can anyone really answer no to this question when we are still ########## a war which started on that day? We couldn't stand by and do nothing when our country was attacked. Perhaps the people who orchestrated those events are still out there but perhaps they aren't. What if the only parties responsible are the ones who died along with all the victims? The debate rages on about the morality of the war in Iraq while no one asks themselves if anyone can really know what happened on those planes.
No matter how many people disagree with the war in Iraq. Everyone agrees on one thing. Those responsible for the tragic events of September 11, 2001 must be brought to justice. As Toby Keith so eloquently put it in his song:
"It'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you, brought to you courtesy of the Red White and Blue."
Learn more about this author, Elie Hutcheson.
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No
Time heals all wounds, or at least most of them. In this case, the emotional wounds should be well healed. 7 years is a long time even for a tragedy of this magnitude. September 11, 2001 is a day that will live in the memories of Americans forever, as it should but few people are as shaken by the images as they were 7 years ago.
The emotional impact of the downing of the Twin Towers was incalculable, even in countries outside of the USA. Politicians took advantage of the situation for their own ends and pulled on the heart strings of all. Over the years politicians have used up any emotional cache they ever had on the issue but they certainly worked it for all it was worth. George W. Bush in particular worked it for everything he could.
In hind sight it would seem that some politicians might have had an agenda with regard to the mid-east. September 11, 2001 gave them the impetus they felt they needed to attack a country that had nothing to do with the attacks. It didn't take too long before Americans began to wonder what they were doing in Iraq. The leader of the group that initiated the attack (there is no need to further glorify their names here) continues to remain alive and taunt the United States.
The so-called "Attack on America" shook the US and brought home something that had been familiar in too many other countries around the world: terrorism. For ages America had been insulated from terrorism by 2 oceans. It was always much more difficult and expensive for a terrorist group to plan and execute an attack on the United States. Finally terrorists decided to reach out and touch someone and that someone was the United States.
Europe, Asia and parts of Africa have all experienced terrorism for perhaps hundreds of years. North America has watched the mail box bombing by the Irish Republican Army in London, England. We have witnessed any number of terrorist groups in any number of countries bombing buildings and killing innocent civilians. Other terrorist outfits have kidnapped civilians, tortured them and done various other nasty and vile things. North Americans have watched with a smug resignation; well it happens there but it could never happen over here.
Seven years is a long time and while people tend to exaggerate their emotions time truly does dull the pain. It's not that people have forgotten what has happened but rather the event does not affect them as greatly as it once did. The television reports were truly shocking and stunned everyone who saw them at the time. That shock has diminished and will continue to do so over time. That is the good thing about time; your emotions and feelings become a wee bit more dulled than they were at the time. The more time that passes the more the impact of that day will lessen.
Learn more about this author, R.A. Scott.
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