I have heard the September 11 terrorist attacks gave Americans the chance to pause a moment and look back on how they have been living their lives and consider making an attitude adjustment.
According to a poll in the Nov. 19, 2001, issue of Time because of the attacks, 62 percent felt the need to spend more time with family members while 55 percent of those said they now have a greater focus or purpose in life. Another 21 percent said they attend religious services more often while 66 percent said they told a family member they loved them.
As to how the terrorist attacks defined a generation, 69 percent said it will have the same effect as the JFK assassination.
Here we are now a year later. I seriously doubt those figures are the same other than the one referencing the events of Nov. 22, 1963. Chances are the percentages are lower now or for that matter, non-existent.
The day after the attacks, a friend of mine with no law enforcement experience whatsoever told me he was considering looking into a job as a sky marshal.
Today, he still works for the apartment industry.
Which brings me to the question, why does it take a major catastrophe to force one to reconsider their lifestyle or for that matter, accept God? Unfortunately, that is the way people have always been.
It is more than what the piece-of-shit zealot hijackers gave the passengers and crews on board those four planes or the hundreds stranded on or above the fire floors of the first tower as the fires raged below who had no way down and debated on the best way to go.
All they were doing was either going to work or traveling. Chances are the thought they would be victims of a terrorist attack never, ever once crossed their minds!
9/11 taught me two things. The same lesson I should have gotten after watching or reading about the souls lost in Oklahoma City at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building or on TWA Flight 800 and the untimely losses of Princess Diana and JFK Jr.
The lesson 9/11 drove home is how mortal we all are and how precious life is.
The second is that history has a funny way of repeating itself; albeit tragically. “Study the past” were the words I saw in a clip from Oliver Stone’s “JFK” (1991). Well, it is now clear this country does not learn from history’s mistakes.
Last month, I heard on the news what books and movies have been saying for decades about how Pearl Harbor started. The recovery of a Japanese sub sunk by an American destroyer shortly before the attack and the fact the incident was ignored in the military that December morning recalls how arrogant this country was at thinking an attack by foreign invaders was impossible.
Nothing has changed.
Then at 8:46 a.m. last September, we awoke to a nightmare hoping this was something out of a Hollywood movie like “The Siege” (1998) or “The Towering Inferno” (1974).
One year later, bin Laden is still at large (with no idea if he is dead or alive) and Al-Qaeda is still strong, even if they have been driven underground. The recent apprehension of four men in the United States believed to be linked to bin Laden’s organization with blueprints of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas and Disney World signifies 9/11 could only be a beginning unless we continue to be alert of our surroundings.
The two lessons we should all gain from Sept. 11 is that life is short, whether you live to be 20 or 120. We should attempt to make the most of our time while we are here and live it the best we can, preferably in a positive than a negative way.
The other is to learn from history’s mistakes. Our government and law enforcement agencies need to stop pointing fingers at who dropped the ball 9/11 and do everything possible to keep it from happening again. “Those who don’t learn from history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them” so the saying goes.
I have a feeling though those thoughts will only last a brief time; about as long as it took for my friend who told me weeks after the attacks that he was just thinking aloud when considering a career change.
What is going to last a great while longer is that 9/11 will go down as being our generation’s JFK assassination. It will be a chance for authors, Hollywood filmmakers, historians, and conspiracy theorists to churn out hundreds of books, blockbuster movies, documentaries, and outlandish ideas on the Internet (making the one-dollar bill resemble the destruction of the twin towers and the Pentagon, for example) over the next few decades.
Years from now, I would like to one day hear my young nephew ask me if the events of 9/11 made me reconsider how I had been living my life up until then and if it made this country better, if not stronger and more patriotic.
Instead, something tells me the question he and other kids will ask their parents and relatives one day after reading about it in their history classes is “Where were you Sept. 11, 2001, when you learned America was attacked?”
©9/2/02
According to a poll in the Nov. 19, 2001, issue of Time because of the attacks, 62 percent felt the need to spend more time with family members while 55 percent of those said they now have a greater focus or purpose in life. Another 21 percent said they attend religious services more often while 66 percent said they told a family member they loved them.
As to how the terrorist attacks defined a generation, 69 percent said it will have the same effect as the JFK assassination.
Here we are now a year later. I seriously doubt those figures are the same other than the one referencing the events of Nov. 22, 1963. Chances are the percentages are lower now or for that matter, non-existent.
The day after the attacks, a friend of mine with no law enforcement experience whatsoever told me he was considering looking into a job as a sky marshal.
Today, he still works for the apartment industry.
Which brings me to the question, why does it take a major catastrophe to force one to reconsider their lifestyle or for that matter, accept God? Unfortunately, that is the way people have always been.
Truth is we have become so self-absorbed in our daily lives that the thought we may not come home after work does not cross our minds until we either lose someone close to us or witness the atrocities like those of 9/ 11. Or get the grim news from our doctor that we have some terminal disease and will be dead in six months.In those cases, we either look back wishing we had done something to prevent the inevitable or provided we have been granted a reprieve as some people saw with 9/11 who were not directly affected by the events, they look to make changes in their personal lives.
It is more than what the piece-of-shit zealot hijackers gave the passengers and crews on board those four planes or the hundreds stranded on or above the fire floors of the first tower as the fires raged below who had no way down and debated on the best way to go.
All they were doing was either going to work or traveling. Chances are the thought they would be victims of a terrorist attack never, ever once crossed their minds!
9/11 taught me two things. The same lesson I should have gotten after watching or reading about the souls lost in Oklahoma City at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building or on TWA Flight 800 and the untimely losses of Princess Diana and JFK Jr.
The lesson 9/11 drove home is how mortal we all are and how precious life is.
The second is that history has a funny way of repeating itself; albeit tragically. “Study the past” were the words I saw in a clip from Oliver Stone’s “JFK” (1991). Well, it is now clear this country does not learn from history’s mistakes.
Last month, I heard on the news what books and movies have been saying for decades about how Pearl Harbor started. The recovery of a Japanese sub sunk by an American destroyer shortly before the attack and the fact the incident was ignored in the military that December morning recalls how arrogant this country was at thinking an attack by foreign invaders was impossible.
Nothing has changed.
Several warning signals went up prior to 9/11 practically going back to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. The fact terrorism had finally reached American soil, however, went unnoticed. We lazily slept through the next eight years barely opening our eyes to the embassy bombings in East Africa and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole.On Sept. 10, 2001, Americans had no idea who or what the Taliban was, nor did we care about the impending threat Osama bin Laden and his elaborate Al-Qaeda terrorist network presented no matter how many times they were mentioned by the press. We foolishly believed the dream he and his organization would only continue to target Americans and innocent civilians abroad and never within the confines of our own country.
Then at 8:46 a.m. last September, we awoke to a nightmare hoping this was something out of a Hollywood movie like “The Siege” (1998) or “The Towering Inferno” (1974).
One year later, bin Laden is still at large (with no idea if he is dead or alive) and Al-Qaeda is still strong, even if they have been driven underground. The recent apprehension of four men in the United States believed to be linked to bin Laden’s organization with blueprints of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas and Disney World signifies 9/11 could only be a beginning unless we continue to be alert of our surroundings.
The two lessons we should all gain from Sept. 11 is that life is short, whether you live to be 20 or 120. We should attempt to make the most of our time while we are here and live it the best we can, preferably in a positive than a negative way.
The other is to learn from history’s mistakes. Our government and law enforcement agencies need to stop pointing fingers at who dropped the ball 9/11 and do everything possible to keep it from happening again. “Those who don’t learn from history’s mistakes are doomed to repeat them” so the saying goes.
I have a feeling though those thoughts will only last a brief time; about as long as it took for my friend who told me weeks after the attacks that he was just thinking aloud when considering a career change.
What is going to last a great while longer is that 9/11 will go down as being our generation’s JFK assassination. It will be a chance for authors, Hollywood filmmakers, historians, and conspiracy theorists to churn out hundreds of books, blockbuster movies, documentaries, and outlandish ideas on the Internet (making the one-dollar bill resemble the destruction of the twin towers and the Pentagon, for example) over the next few decades.
Years from now, I would like to one day hear my young nephew ask me if the events of 9/11 made me reconsider how I had been living my life up until then and if it made this country better, if not stronger and more patriotic.
Instead, something tells me the question he and other kids will ask their parents and relatives one day after reading about it in their history classes is “Where were you Sept. 11, 2001, when you learned America was attacked?”
©9/2/02
