Length: 993 words (3.6 pages)
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Terror

The tragedies of Tuesday, September 11, 2001 affected people in many different ways. For me, it was a time of wonder and worry. My Aunt lives right in Manhattan where the World Trade Center was attacked. For the first couple hours of the attack, we did not hear from her. I went to visit my mom in Des Moines and my Aunt finally emailed her at school. She was not able to use telephones or her cell phone, so email was the only way to keep in contact with her. She was not able to get home till later that night, because the police would not let her across the Brooklyn Bridge. Then, ten days 14 days later, we got a call from her asking us to buy her a gas mask. She said it is absolutely horrible smelling because of all the dust and 6,000 rotting bodies.

Another way it affected me personally was it was my moms 50th birthday on the 11th, thats why I went to visit her. My sister was supposed to fly up from Texas on the 14th and surprise her on the 15th with a limo and dinner for her birthday. Well, they had found two people in Dallas connected wit h the whole ordeal and there were thoughts of another attack that weekend, so we had to cancel our plans and tell my mom. This had all been planned for months. Also, my brothers Homecoming football game was cancelled that Friday night and rescheduled for the next Monday. It could still be played, but being the homecoming game, it wasnt the same to have it after the dance, on a Monday, not a Friday, and in the middle of the week. Now I realize that this doesnt even compare to what the families of the victims and the surviving victims have experienced, but it was how it affected me thousands of miles away.

Having had someone there and worrying about them makes you want to have our armies go over to Afghanistan and attack them just like they attacked us. At first I wanted their entire country to feel like we feel and have lost so many people. I wanted revenge like never before. They could have killed one of my family members, and the people who really did lose someone I bet some of them feel the same way.

After watching the news for 14 days, you begin to wonder if revenge is the best answer. There are so many people over there that do not have a problem with America, and there was just the select group that could ruin their entire country. There are more people mourning with us, than trying to kill us. I think that if they can find out where exactly Osama Bin Laden is, then I think I would support our troops going over there and getting him and his men. I dont think it is necessary for us to declare war and call for the draft, I think for the time being we just need to focus on him and his men rather than the rest of his country. We have so many people backing us up, I dont feel that we need to risk more of our American lives, just to have revenge, and then the possibility of them or friends of theirs attacking us again. It cant just be a back and forth thing, one of us has to grow up and chose to try and end it.

For me personally, if we go to war, the one thing that really scares me is the draft. I have a serious boyfriend and a brother who could be called for it. Losing them for a stupid war is the one thing that I really think about when deciding what I would like the United States to do. I also sometimes worry about if they were to get a hold of nuclear weapons and completely wipe out our entire country. I am planning on being a teacher and this is one thing that I will have to teach to my students. I will hopefully be teaching first grade, and I will have to figure out a tactful way of telling them what happened, because some of the stuff you cant explain to six year olds, and frankly some of the stuff, they shouldnt know until they are 9 or 10 and mature enough to handle the gruesome details. For example, they dont need to know that there were 6000 rotting bodies lying on the streets and there are random body parts lying everywhere. And when it was happening that people were jumping out of the windows and they would land right in front of a person standing on the ground. Some of it, they just couldnt handle and comprehend at such a young age.

For me, I think President Bush has good intentions to keep everyone safe and do things in the most tactful of ways. I hope that we can get everything figured out with out losing lives on either side and catching Bin Laden and doing with him what needs to be done, which I personally dont know what should be done with him at this point. In conclusion, I believe that this was a horrible thing, but the United States has come together like we never thought possible. Democrats and Republicans believe in the same issues for probably the first time in history. I believe that we should do what we need to, but doing as little as possible. Keeping everyone safe I think is the most important thing right now, and catching the people who have done this to our country and letting President Bush decide what to do with them. Until then, I hope that we can stay as united as we are right now, and after this is over and done with, we dont go back to the same divided ways.