Hospital Visit and the Horror of 9/11 Revisited on Anniversary Date Today

Whew..now that is a title huh? I'm sitting here watching films from 9/11/2001. It's mid evening and I spent most of the day at the hospital with my friend's daughter. I'll get to that later. Right now as I sit here watching the TV and the documentaries dedicated to the tragedy of the Twin Towers, I think back to that day and me sitting in my living room after hearing about the first tower being hit. I raced to the living room and turned on the TV and soon I saw the live broadcast of the second plane when it hit the towers. I remember clearly how horrified I was when I realized we were being attacked. Then the Pentagon reports started coming in and I felt panic and fear. Who would be next? Was this an all out raid on the U.S.? I sat quietly and waited. Waited to hear the bombs start dropping. I flashed back to my years in elementary school when we were trained to cower beneath our desks during the air raid siren warnings of an airstrike. After all these years, I thought we had finally arrived at the time of the strikes. I called my daughter who of course was unaware of what was going on. I don't think I left the news coverage on this for hours and hours. For weeks afterwards I was one of those people that was too stunned and depressed to leave my house. I had no desire to go anywhere. I had no desire to shop, to work or get involved in anything. When the planes were allowed to fly once again, all I could do was gaze at them and imagine what it must have been like for all those passengers on the flights that crashed on 9/11. I thought I would never get on another plane. I was wrong. I have been a passenger on long flights since then; it's never was comfortable for me to fly even before the 9/11 tragedies and it was certainly more difficult after. I've spent this evening watching and remembering that day. I also remember the crazieness afterwards. The distrust of anyone of Arab descent. The treatment of these people from the fear and the ignorance of the American citizens which was as horrible as the attack on the towers. I also remember all the propanganda generated by our government and when Iraq was attacked. I remember the fear of all the politicians to protest. The American citizen did not verbalize their feelings against this invasion for fear of retaliation by our government. During this time, I came to realize how Hitler had subdued a whole nation through fear. To this I say "and they said it would never happen again" but I saw it happen on 9/11. Yes we endured a tragedy. We have a lot to be ashamed of following that attack. The persecutions that were visited on any one that was a Muslim or an Arab was despicable. I saw people lose their businesses if they were Muslims. I witnessed people being arrested and jailed as the Chinese were arrested during WWII. We had knee jerk reactions to the Tower Attacks and for that I am embarrassed. Then our ignorant President got to play John Wayne and things just escalated and got worse. Today we are still losing our young men and women because of his decision to invade a country that had nothing to do with the Tower Attacks. Let me climb down off this soap box. I'm getting dizzy up here. I'm also going to comment later on my hospital visit so just ignore that part in the title of this blog, ok? Later ya'll. I'm back to the TV to watch more of the documentaries.