by Timmy

Created on: April 17, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I was a junior in a private high school in the Bronx. During my early morning free period, I enjoyed checking out the news in the computer room. While checking CNN, I saw that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. Needless to say I was stunned and I prayed for the people on the plane and inside the building. People started to express concern and then the webpage refreshed and I learned that another plane struck the other tower. Then I knew we were at war. Moments later the dean came on the intercom and asked all boys whose parents worked in the World Trade Center to report to the theater. The harsh reality sunk in: thousands of people were dead and they all died a miserable death. My mother, who worked nearby fought to pick me up from school during the mid morning. As we drove out of the Bronx, we were in dead silence.

My father stayed on the phone with us as we drove out of the city. The roads were eerily empty. I will never forget the clear blue sky that day. When we walked in the door, my father was in his chair staring at the TV and told us something we neither knew or expected: the towers had both fallen.

The new channels were still playing the footage of the burning moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and friends jumping from the towers. I sat in shock and mom in tears. I was 16 years old and my childhood ended. I learned how to hate that day. I hated the fanatic animals who slit the throats of flight attendants and incinerated three thousand innocent people. When I looked out of my window in Yonkers, all I saw was America's city engulfed in a black death cloud.

Friends who lived in Manhattan told me they held their breath for the first few days after. The streets smelled like rotting corpses. Classmates lost moms and dads. We didn't know where to turn for answers or what to do. When someone comes to your home and kills your brother, what do you do?

I can speculate about why it happened, but it really comes down to one, simple explanation: the animals who did this only know death and adhering to a herd mentality. Reason and freedom have no place in their lives. From a young age, they lived in a culture of death and oppression. They are told that countless virgins await them in heaven after they kill themselves to murder innocent infidels. So is it really their fault?

These criminals never had a choice and never had freedom. They do not understand anything but a society that controls their will. To think that we could invade another country and impose our freedom on them is haughty and absurd. Their culture of violence has been in place for thousands of years. America is coming up on 300. We should only go after one of these cultures when it poses a direct threat to our physical safety. To prevent further murderous fanatical Muslims from attacking us, we need to shore up our security here at home.

Gone But Not Forgotten

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