The Wounds of September

I was 13 years old, in a Tech class at Batavia Middle School, in Batavia, Illinois. We were making little electronic devices that used a 9-volt battery to power lights or make sounds. I remember our PA system came on and instructed all of the teachers to turn on their TVs, and all of us kids watched the second tower go down.

So few of us actually knew what was going on, myself included. We were a bit awestruck at watching the events unfold, and the whole school seemed to become quiet and contemplative for the rest of that day. For myself, it was a reality check. People can be insane, violent, and heartless. Even faced with those kind of facts, though, I became motivated to grow up and change the world for the better. I got into politics, and learned about protests. I found System of a Down. I learned a lot about the people who attacked us, and why they did it.

For me, the experience was more of a personal growth, and less of a surge of patriotism. However, knowing that I have two brothers that will have been to the Middle East because they -personally- want to help heal the wounds of terrorism, fills me with pride. The terrorist group attacked us out of bitterness and religious fanaticism, and we are helping their civilians see the lies that have been spread to them about us. We might be ruled by people of greed and selfishness, but we are not a nation of evil.

In my opinion, all religions have their failings. All of them have drawbacks. However, there is a stark irony that has stayed with me, about the attack in September, 2001. They claimed that we were an evil people, who suppressed their religion and caused them pain. As far as I know, however, I can't think of any instance where a group of Islamic missionaries have traveled to a third-world country to teach children and offer food and clothing to the poverty-stricken. I can think of plenty instances of Christians doing this, however. In fact, it's almost a staple of the religion to go out and help people where and when you can. I may disagree with Christianity myself, but the hypocrisy of the reasoning given behind Osama bin-Laden's funded attack on us is glaring.

I'm not saying that Islamic people aren't kind and helpful. I've seen plenty documentaries of Muslim doctors from the Middle East going to offer their aid to poverty-stricken areas, to help out with HIV vaccinations and other similar forms of aid. It's not them that I'm talking about, it's the religiously-fanatic terrorists that claim our people are evil.

In conclusion, after September eleventh, I never feared a terrorist ever again. I saw their cowardice, and their weakness. I saw that they were acting like children who just wanted to blame someone and cause them pain, because it made them feel better. I, as the son of my mother and father, who happens to have been born in America, am a better person than that. And you are too.