Catharnine — Top Story
Two months ago terrorists attacked the United States. Sure, it was scary. As a result people have been a bit more cautious these past weeks. Enough is enough. There is no need to live life in fear.
Every other country in the world is plagued by terrorism. In Ireland there is a daily bombing. Israel is constantly in a ruckus. Mexico is in the middle of a guerrilla war that’s been going on since it became a free country. These people do not constantly worry about opening a letter just because they don’t know who sent it. These people are lucky to even get mail.
No one has ever been scared to travel from those countries. Americans even go to them everyday. Life does not have to be different now.
So, we lost a few buildings and a lot of people died, it is sad. Life has to go on. People die all the time, it happens. When a car bomb goes off in Belfast, the whole nation doesn’t mourn for months. The families of those hurt even smile again after a couple of weeks.
I refuse to live my life in fear. I will not be a victim of this attack. I will not stop being free. The reason people target the US is because we are free. We don’t have rules of who to worship or how to think.
The fire fighters in New York are up in arms about Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s new rule preventing so many of them to be at the “Ground Zero” sight.
Just a little thought, don’t they have fires to fight? What about the people who need them to come do real fire fighter work instead of picking through rubble to find dead bodies?
I know it is an emotional line of work and they really want to help, but it is not necessary work for a fire fighter to be doing. There are so many volunteers who don’t have jobs that save lives. A computer programmer can dig just as well as a fireman. Not all the fire fighters should leave but having more than three quarters of the city’s fire department on site is a bit much.
Another huge problem is the anthrax scare. Don’t get me wrong it’s a terrible disease, but a normal person is not going to get enough spores to be killed. There are scientific studies that show how much actual anthrax it takes to become ill, and it is a lot.
I hear about people who say, “I’m having some breathing difficulty. I think I might have anthrax.”
Come on people, the possibility of getting anthrax, as a college student is slim to none. If you do get it, the possibility that it was meant to harm you is negligible.
All the contaminated letters are going to important media personnel and government officials. Don’t worry, the terrorists, where-ever they are from, are not out to get you.
This is still a very free and well-protected country. We have a lot of space to move around; even people who live in a big city can drive out to east jibip to get away from the tight congestedness of the city.
We are still a country of freedom. We are free to choose whom we want to marry or not to marry. We are free to choose who we want to pray to or can choose not to pray at all.
The attack happened two months ago, nothing has really happened since, that can be proven as an outside terrorist attack. We have to get back to reality.
I am a free and independent kind of girl and I will not be taken advantage of because I’m scared of some foreign guy with a vendetta against my life style.
We have to live our lives the way we used. If not the terrorists win.
Richard Magda — Bottom Story
Terror has taken over America as the result of the Sept. 11 attacks. Although it is true that we must do our best to achieve a state of normalcy in our daily habits, doing so does not offer answers or provide protection against future unjustified outrages.
The problem standing in the way of progress is the common misconceptions shared by Americans, much like that of my counterpart. As we listen to the government preach to us that we must continue to live as we did, our tendency is to think in fear but live in ignorance. It seems to have become the goal of America to return to reality. The shocker is that this constant state of fear in the face of terror has become reality.
Part of dealing with the new reality forced upon the world is accepting the fact that “one and done” is clearly not the favored theory of anti-American terrorists. Phase two of the recent terrorist strikes involves micro killers being spread through daily mail. Once believed to be a possible threat after Sept. 11, biological warfare is now threatening those involved with making, reporting and delivering news.
The fact that this strain of anthrax has such potent spores forces ordinary citizens to fear opening their mail because of cross contamination.
Of course other countries do not have to be concerned when they get mail. Only America is faced with the threat of psycho scientists brewing up this super spore to kill innocent people.
Americans must move on, but with caution and remembrance. Chalking up the loss of approximately 7,000 innocent people and two of the world’s most prominent buildings as an ordinary case of death and destruction is absurdly insensitive and wrong. To compare this unprecedented massacre to any other form of violence or terrorism anywhere else in the world is perhaps more unfathomable.
Of course the entire country of Ireland doesn’t mourn for months over a car bomb in Belfast. America does not mourn over a car bomb in Los Angeles or any other city either.
What America should keep in their hearts and prayers without remorse, however, is the loss of the people who epitomized why America leads the world. It is normal to feel lost and unsure in such a time that cannot be shoved aside or moved beyond.
As for the enraged firefighters in New York City, they have the right to be offended by Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s decision to reduce the number of trained men at the scene. These men are professionals and could not be replaced by computer programmers.
To say that nothing has really happened since Sept. 11 is ridiculous.
America is at war both overseas and on its own land. Politicians and diplomats are struggling to keep up with the progress of the American armed forces and the Northern Alliance. We still do not have any credible intelligence to lead us to Osama bin Laden or his cohorts. Those who spread anthrax have yet to be discovered. Not to mention the possibility of terrorism as the cause of an airbus to lose an engine three minutes into flight and crash into a residential area of Queens, NY.
America is still a free and safe nation. There is no reason to change daily routines or lifestyles to accommodate the ideals of terrorists, but America is losing ground every time that someone forgets the impact that Sept. 11 has had on each aspect of the future.
Taking such atrocities only as events that happened two months ago will bring more trouble than any nation could handle, including America.
