So yesterday the world trade center is reduced to rubble. The nation is shaken, we all feel the loss of our fellow Americans. Tomorrow is a new day – how do we approach it? what do we change?
We don’t change a fucking thing. Every ounce of freedom we remove from our lives is a victory for them. Every state department we close, baseball game we cancel, shopping mall we close they gain another victory. For every day of class we loose, they gain more strength.
They are trying to scare us into changing our lifestyle. Today they were successful in holding us hostage in our own country, in our own homes. Tomorrow is a new day – don’t let them be successful twice. It is imperative that we remember the dead, pray for the survivors, and continue with our lives; not as if nothing happened, but with a resolve that cannot be broken…
I refuse to live my life in terror. I will not let any terrorist group dictate to me what I can and cannot do. I will not be held hostage in my home. For every freedom we choose to give up, every busisness that closes, every government building that is evacuated, is another victory in their book
I agree up to a point. Canceling ball games, etc. is not out of fear of the Terrorists, but out of respect for the dead. It is hard to feel justified in play, when there are thousands still risking their lives to try to find a few survivors. IMHO.
No kick with postponing games, cancelling concerts, closing theaters, or sending everyone home for the day. We did the same thing after Pearl Harbor. What we can’t afford is to let this panic us into changing our society, as some reactionary talking-head assholes on the tube have suggested recently. You know, things like curtailing our rights, changing our stance on assasination as a diplomatic tool, stuff like that.
I’m already hearing Brokaw and the Washington pundits talking about giving up civil liberties for the greater good. They seem to think that it’s inevitable that we give up a large chunk of our right to privacy, including our internet exchanges. Brokaw said one time that even though the mantra yesterday was “we can’t give up liberty to save other liberies,” that he believed we’d be forced to do so anyway as a price of keeping our citizenry safe from terrorists.
This is one of the most profoundly frightening aspects of this to me.
I don’t want to believe it will happen, but with all the death and destruction, I can see the “what about the children” camp pushing for infringements on civil liberties. The most frightening part?
This atrocity has changed my life in that I realized (in that “driven home, never forget it as long as I live” way) that every day is precious, and days that I spend worrying about tiny things, doing work I hate, or just not appreciating how great I have it is a day I won’t get to try over again to get it right. Everything changed so quickly, and I had absolutely no control over anything; I realized that the only thing I have any control over is what I make of my own life. I had some moments of fear, and it actually crossed my mind going to sleep Tuesday night that we might not wake up to see morning, but I won’t live in fear, and I won’t change my beliefs over this.