Editor,
I know many of us are tired of discussing, hearing and reading about last week's tragic events. However, I believe the catastrophic loss of life was a wake-up call to American society and to us as human beings. It was a wake-up call because in many ways we let it happen.
It appears from what we've learned about the attacks so far that four separate planes were hijacked by terrorist, and these terrorist armed with knives took control of the cockpit and crashed the planes into both the World Trade Towers, and the Pentagon. The fourth plane, as I understand it, never made it to its intended target and crashed in rural Pennsylvania.
The wake-up call is that we as Americans, need to come together. This extends much further than just tying American flags to the tops of our cars and driving around town. I believe fear and panic killed the people on those planes, and I understand why.
I have noticed on an airplane, most of the time people board like sheep, sit in their seats and with a few exceptions don't talk to each other.
It would be a terrifying situation to be in a hijacked plane, but the real terror is when you are surrounded by people you don't know and wouldn't trust with your life. That makes it a whole lot easier for a smaller group of people to take control of an airplane with 30-plus people in it. It seems on one of the airplanes last week there was an exception to what I've described.
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Apparently on the airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania, a group of people voted to give life their best shot. They could not save their own lives, but their actions my have saved hundreds of other lives. This information may change as we piece together what happened during those four flights.
My point is, passengers on any airplane can be representative of the American people. We often see ourselves as individuals, and place our individual needs before others we don't know. We have been living with an "I got to get mine you got to get yours" attitude.
Think about it. Do you know your neighbors other than the "waving hi" every now and then?
When you notice a stranger sitting next to you in class is having trouble, do you offer to help, or are you just glad your getting an "A?"
When we see someone with a broken-down car on the side of the road do we drive on by without stopping or if it feels unsafe, do we at least call help for them?
We don't talk to people in the elevator because we don't want to "freak them out."
Basically, we can retaliate as hard as we want, and beef up security but unless we change some of our ways we will continue to be under fire from foreign terrorists and even homegrown terrorists.
This idea can also be applied on a global level.
Why do so many nations and peoples around the world hate the United States?
Probably, because our country puts its own interest before the rest of the world. One American citizen uses more resources than other individual citizens do from other countries across the world.
If this country is going to survive we need to make some changes in the way we act and think. We also need to sacrifice many things for the greater good of people across the world.
It is a fact that one day each of us is going to die so we should be working on making this world a better place while we are still here.
Casey Thornbrugh
Undergraduate Student
