9/11: How do you explain it?

As I sit on the couch this morning and cry while watching the memorial service being held, I can't help but look at this smiling and laughing baby sitting next to me and think... how am I ever going to explain this to her? Of course, this isn't going to come until later in life, but how do you explain to a child that there are such bad people in the world? People who could kill so many people and be looked at as warriors for their faith. It just makes me sick to think of it.


10 years ago today, I was leaving my 8am class and had another student from New York in my class. She was listening to the radio after class and told us all. I quickly went to my dorm room in Langdale and found my roommate crying on the bed watching the news. She filled me in on everything and we sat all day stunned at the news. I was sick to my stomach that day. I couldn't imagine that someone would have that much hatred for our country to do this to us.


And now, I am sitting here still thinking the same thing. I am still asking the same questions. Questions that will never be answered. It just makes me cry to know that our country will forever remember this day as the day we were attacked. We still worry about attacks against our country every year, and have to brief the president of these even on this day. A day that should be looked as a day to remember the people who gave their life on this day. We are still fighting a war against the people that terrorized our country. When will this be over? Will we raise our children to know about war, terror alerts, and people with hatred toward our country from the beginning of their life? It is just so hard to know that life is so different than it was 10 years ago. Our country has lost the innocence that it once had.


How is there so much evil in the world, but so much good at the same time? One day, I will be a visitor at the memorial site. I can't wait to pay tribute to all that we lost on this day 10 years ago. I can't imagine the feelings I will feel, or the sights that I will see, but I do know I will feel lucky to be an American.