There
is hardly a person on the planet that does not know what
‘nine-eleven’ means. It has become synonymous with pain,
suffering and evil. Indeed when people ask me how I became injured I
am now hesitant to say those words. It is always a reminder of what
happened that day. Not that I really need a reminder; the handful of
pills and the daily pain is enough.
It
often passes through my mind how an innocent child can grow up to be
a person so filled with hatred and evil that they could conceive
such heinous crimes. History has been tarnished by those that have
wanted to force their opinion and beliefs on others. I think what
has been lost is the true meaning of the word, Opinion.
According
to the American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 2000), the
word opinion has five definitions:
-
A
belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated
by positive knowledge or proof
-
A
judgment based on special knowledge and given by an expert
-
A
judgment or estimation of the merit of a person or thing
-
The
prevailing view
-
A
formal statement by a court or other adjudicative body of the
legal reasons and principles for the conclusions of the court
An
opinion is my own personal view, and I have the right to speak about
it, but it does not give me the right to force it on others. This is
what supposedly separates me and others from handfuls of terrorists
that believe we, free people, all people, should live our lives
according to their tune. Wrong!
But
now, over 18 months since the day that shook the world, the
terrorists’ actions are still seen in daily life, and it frightens
me that we have become a society at war with fear.
With
my own eyes I have witnessed the aftermath of terrorist attacks; the
destroyed
US
embassy in
Nairobi
, the devastation that the IRA caused in the
UK
. I even saw the wreckage of the Lockerbie Pan Am flight.
I
recall a piece I read in a British newspaper. A reporter stated that the true aim of a terrorism is to
disrupt normal life and business. That was certainly true of 9/11;
the stock market went into a free fall the minute it reopened. Life
was certainly disrupted for thousands of residents of downtown
Manhattan
, to say nothing of the families of the deceased and injured.
What’s
more chilling is that ‘they’ have managed to install a degree of
fear into our normal daily routine, to make us so scared of the
thought of what else could happen. Our lives are governed by colors;
green, blue, yellow, orange & red, the terror alert system.
Soldiers
with automatic rifles patrol Grand Central Station, and there is a
raised police presence seemingly everywhere you go now, even outside
major metropolitan areas. We now accept that we have to take our
shoes, belts and hats etc. off for airport security purposes.
We are watched by law officials and cameras peering at our every
move, looking to see who in the crowd stands out.
Additional
security is not a bad thing. I have often said that I have no
problem with following every check at the airport if it means that I
reach my destination safely and without incident. But now, as I
innocently go about my day and see armed personnel on our streets I
have to wonder if they really did win? I have to wonder if one day I
am mistakenly pointed out in the crowd.
I wonder this for myself, my loved ones and my fellow
New Yorkers.
Homeland
Security tells us they have ‘evidence’ or ‘indications’ or
“chatter” as among the reasons the terror alerts are raised. But
we are not told why this is so. Should we not be told what should be
expected? To prepare? And how do we prepare?
Instead,
we are advised to buy plastic sheeting, duct tape, bottled water and
enough canned food to last a week. Why? What are the motives of
safety behind these advisories? The emptying of hardware store
shelves? This is not the way I want to live my life and this is not
the way we are supposed to live.
I
expect a level of security that I neither want to know the fine
tunings of nor have to think about. Whether or not that security
failed on the morning of September 11th is something else
to argue. But who won? Every person has their own right and
view to answer that one.
We
live in a city where armed personnel have always been a part of
life, but now more so. The aftermath of 9/11 is simple; I find
myself looking and thinking about what I never had done before. Yes
my life has been disrupted.
Do
I really have to think what color today will be? What’s your opinion?
