9.11.01

Well today is the 5th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. I'm sure that you haven't been able to avoid this all day but I thought that I would share my comments today, because this event is the largest event to take place since I've been alive. By the way, this is really long...sorry.

Like most people, I remember exactly where I was and exactly what I was doing. I'm sure that is exactly how I'll recall September 11, 2001 to my kids and grandkids, just like my parents and grandparent recall the events that they lived through.

I had woken up and did the whole shower thing, got dressed and headed back up to my room. I had the radio on and I could tell that something big was going on due to the conversation of the morning show hosts.

I listened closely only to discover that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I wasn't really big into news back then, but I knew that this was huge. So I turned on my computer, which doubled as a television, so that I could try and capture what was going on that day.

With everything up and running I was just getting ready to start recording and realized that as I was watching the news broadcast the information of the first tower, the second tower was hit right before my eyes.

I hit record on my computer to capture everything I could and I ran down stairs to call my mom. She hadn't heard anything. As I stood there on the phone and watching everything unfold on the family television, I couldn't help but have that butterflies in the stomach feeling.

As a college student at this time I asked my mom if I should skip class today and she said no, that I should still go. So I did.

About a half an hour later I rolled on to the campus of Grand Valley. Things looked slightly normal, but only slightly. The faces of the students I passed lacked traditional emotions, only to be filled with looks of confusion and concern.

Then...I walked into the Kirkof Center into what I could only describe as an eerie site. As I walked in I felt faces look at me briefly and then return to the television screen they had once been glued to.

After that I headed to classes and finished out the rest of my day. The rest of that week was a new experience for me too, because since this was such a huge event news was on for 4 days straight!

I have never been mad about what happened and to be honest, I'm still not mad, however, I don't know anyone who was a casualty of 9/11.

The last 5 years, I've thought about it here and there, when there was some new development, or because I saw a plane in the sky.

Then recently I watched "United 93" which is about the hijacked flight where the passengers fought back. As I watched I thought, "Yeah...I'd be one of the ones that would have fought back." Honestly...I have no idea what I would have done. All I can say is thank God for cell phones, so that those destined to pass had the chance to contact their loved ones.

The other thing that hit me as I watched this film, based on true events, was that I really felt that the hijackers felt they were doing something good and for their god.

I didn't feel sorry for them and I also didn't hate them. The more I thought about it, they're not that much different than us, the U.S. (Please understand that this is all my opinion and from my point of view based on the information I know.)

Think about it...they come in with thier soldiers (hijackers) and used weapons (planes) to attack our civilians for a reason that we do not understand, or at least for a reason that most of us understand...that they hate us and they want to kill us.

Although that last part may be true, what happened after 9/11? The U.S. fought back. We sent our soldiers and used weapons to attack their civilians for a reason we understood, to find the one(s) responsible and seek justice.

The only thing that everything related to 9/11 convinces me of is that, at some point, sometime, and someplace, I have the priveledge to NOT be here anymore. I'll have my escape with the added blessing of being with all the lost loved ones of my life. Don't worry I'm not going to speed that process up, but that escape is inevitable, and will be welcomed in open arms.

As we wrap up this 5 year anniversary, I think about everything that happened and my heart goes out to those who lost loved ones, whether they're Americans...or not.

~jeremy

**By the way, the picture I put together is a picture of the World Trade Center site, before 9/11, on 9/11, and the future after 9/11.**