***I wrote this yesterday and for whatever reason it didn't post so when I say today
I do mean September 11***
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City in the United States and it is hard to believe that it has been so long, but at the same time it feels like it should be longer than just ten years.
I remember that day very clearly despite the fact that I was eleven years old when it happened. I was sitting on my parent's bed brushing my hair like I did every morning and my dad came in and turned on the TV. I heard that there was a plane that crashed into a building in New York and everyone was scared. I remember just sitting there watching the TV and hoping that nobody was hurt and then another plane hit the other tower and the cameraman started swearing and running. There was screaming on the TV and my dad told me to go and get ready for school- I think he didn't know what was going to happen next and if something worse were to happen he didn't want me to see it. At school we said a prayer for the people in New York and then my grade six class watched the news all day. That is all we did and I remember it was a boy in my class's birthday and he was mad because we didn't sing to him. It wasn't a time for singing. After school we went to the grocery and there was already a newspaper about the attacks. I was shocked! Newspapers come in the morning, not at night- that was one thing that really surprised me.
So many things have changed since that day and I do not think they were for the better. I might be upsetting some people by saying this, but September 11 sparked a campaign of unjust hatred for certain groups of people like Muslims and Arabs and made things like racial profiling acceptable. It is even more difficult to travel and feeling taken advantage of or violated in an airport is not uncommon. There are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that should not be happening and were started for a terrible reason. I am completely against having Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan because the Western World cannot just swoop in and fix something that they do not understand- it has been done before and it has failed several times, just look at the history of wars in Afghanistan.
I hope for a world in the future that does not judge by skin colour or facial hair or religion or ethnic group and tolerance for all people. We are all in the same boat together and September 11, 2001 made it difficult for us to work together and make the world a better place for everyone.
Thanks for reading,
Shannon
