by Jason Mulford

Created on: February 17, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

After the attacks that left the entire country of the United States paralyzed with shock, there were many reactions to the events which took place. Talking with people in the days that followed, you would usually come across three differing opinions. The natural reaction for most was, "Let's kill those terrorists and anyone else who gets in our way". That reaction is very natural considering how many lives were lost and is a very instinctive response.

Another response that would often be given is, "We've been asking for this, our arrogance caused this, etc.". This is a humanist response, not wanting to place complete blame on the terrorists and somehow placing some on those who lost their lives. This response is of course in direct opposition of the above response and therefor, they don't mesh too well.

The last response you would typically here is, "We need to take action but we need to check out our facts and make sure we get the right people". That was a logical thinkers response and I don't think many of us can say we were thinking too logically during that time. I certainly wasn't, I was ready to jump right into the military and do what I could to put a stop to this.

The point is that you get very differing attitudes in this situation. You have your gung-ho people that are ready to go out and kick some butt and if you're not with them, then you're obviously against them. This is a very unreasonable idea because some people don't like to attack people anymore than they like being attacked. While they feel just as hurt as the next guy, they think perhaps violence isn't the necessary response.

Of course, even more ridiculous are the people that want to place blame of the US and its citizens for what took place on September 11th. To place any blame on anyone but those that took part in the horrifying actions on that day is to lie to yourself as a human being. There's nothing wrong with having an opinion but you must also be realistic with your opinions.

I tend to fall somewhere a little bit behind the agressive, gung-ho person. I never thought we should charge right into war(at least not after about two days had passed), but I thought it was a realistic option. So I guess I would fall under the discerning patriot, while avoiding being blinded by it. And the third category, well, that would simply be called idiotism.

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