One Mans Opinion 9/11/2010
By Dewaine Shoulders

I apologize for the length of this article, but if you read it, then you'll understand what I'm trying to convey. The following is a personal journal of sorts. It will give you some insight as to why I believe what I do.

They always say you remember exactly where you were when something important - or something terrible - happens.

In one of my earliest memories (I was three years old) I was sitting in the living room floor playing while my mother was doing laundry and ironing. I remember watching her as she cried about something that was on the TV. I looked at the TV and that's when I learned that John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

And, like that early memory, I remember where I was on 9/11/2001; and I still have that memory etched in my mind as if it were yesterday.

I was married and living in Texarkana, TX. We had just rented a house in Texarkana after living in Dallas for almost two years. Both my wife and I were busily looking for jobs (as we had to quit our jobs in Dallas to move to Texarkana). We had to care for my wife's disabled mother.

So, there I was - just another day in the life. I was sitting in my Ford Explorer, listening to The Bob and Tom Show on the radio, while filling out an application for a job at one of the local hospitals. I was in the middle of the application when Kristie Lee (the news person) broke into the comedy show and announced that a plane had struck one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

My eyes left the application and went to the radio. Utter disbelief was what I remember feeling. How could a plane strike one of those buildings? Was the pilot an idiot? Or maybe drunk... Or worse, somehow the pilot had died in mid-flight and just happened to strike one of the tallest buildings in America?

Then I turned my thoughts back to the application. That was more important than some plane crash anyway. At least until the second plane struck the other tower. At that moment, I remember staring at the radio once again. And again, I was struck with utter disbelief. But this time I knew it hadn't been an accident. We were being attacked!

I tossed the application in the back seat of the Explorer and made a mad dash back to the rent house. My wife had taken the day off from her own job hunting and was in the kitchen when I rushed into the house. She hadn't known what was happening as she didn't have the TV on. I think I frantically blurted out, "I think we've been attacked!" as I turned the TV on and parked myself on the couch. My wife sat next to me and listened to the God awful details coming from New York.

There were still people in those buildings and... My God, there were people jumping out of broken windows; they were falling to their deaths. The images were not very clear but yes it looked like people throwing themselves out of the windows because there was nothing else that could be done. Either fall to their deaths or burn to death. Not much of a choice there! And those building were too tall for many rescues, and the smoke and flames were too thick to even think of mounting one from the air.

It wasn't long until the first building came crashing to the ground.

I remember sitting there with my mouth gaped open. I also remember that I said a silent prayer. I was literately on the edge of the couch, about to fall flat on my rear-end to the floor (and I think I actually did at one point). The entire ordeal was horrific, yet I couldn't help but watch the events unfold. People covered with ash were running from the scene; an undeniable fear showed in their eyes.

When the second building came down, I remember wiping the tears from my eyes. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was surrealistic; almost like I was watching some disaster movie with awesome special effects. But it was all too real. By this time I had heard of the plane hitting the Pentagon and the other plane (Flight 93) that later crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. That flight had been heading straight for Washington D.C. and presumable the capitol building itself. The passengers became heroes for causing that plane to fail in hitting its target. God bless them all!

For three days straight, I was glued to the TV. The replays of the towers coming down filled me with dread - and hatred for those responsible for the attacks. My wife continued to sit with me on the couch during those three days. Both of us were transfixed on any new details that were trickling in on Fox, CNN, and even the networks. We channel surfed back and forth to see if we had missed any minute detail; some scrap of information that someone else had left out.We ate little during that time; we took cat naps on the couch but never went to bed during that three day period. Three days of little sleep, little food and little hope.

The world had changed!

Now, I remember hearing about how many people in the Middle East were dancing in the streets because the World Trade Center had been destroyed. They chanted 'Death to America!' and celebrated our misfortune; hailing the martyrs of Islam that took down the towers. And even in parts of the U.S. (the Detroit area mainly) there were people who celebrated the catastrophe.

My mindset at that moment was 'Kill the bastards! Kill em all!' The radical Islamic militants put a sour taste in my mouth for all things Muslim with their heinous acts. I know you can't hold the entirety of Islam accountable for the acts of a few idiots, just like you can't hold Christianity accountable for the likes of the KKK and Timothy McVeigh. But it took everything inside of me to come to that conclusion.

And another memory still echoes in my head. I remember President George W. Bush standing in New York with the firefighters and rescue personnel saying that 'soon the ones responsible would hear from all of us.' The country united as one nation and for a brief moment in time. We had focused on something that meant more to us than politics. America was going to war! And so we did. Saddam Hussein was hunted down, captured and put to death. Many good soldiers have died during the War on Terror, but they all gave their lives to protect us against another homeland attack.

And life went on in America. Only now we live in the 'New Normal.' People began going on about their lives like they always did. But the unity that we briefly had on 9/11 began fading into a dim memory. Our focus was altered, and our loyalties began to divide once again.

Fast forward nine years:

Today, we still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other militant groups that wish to destroy both Israel and America. Although the major conflict in Iraq is over, there are still 50,000 troops stationed over there. It's not over yet!

Back home, we elected a new president. And the new president and his administration seem to care little about people like me; those of us that still feel the rawness of the wounds inflicted upon us by the Islamic extremists on 9/11. The new president and administration are more worried about offending Muslims and far too worried about political correctness to even call the War on Terror a War on Terror! And they would allow a mosque to be built near Ground Zero when they know that it will cause more pain in the families and friends that lost loved ones on 9/11.

They are more concerned about offending Islam than offending the feelings of those people that were victimized by a bunch of lunatics zealots who have perverted the religion. And they are intolerant of those of us that simply wish that the Muslims would build their mosque a couple of blocks further away. They look at people like me as racists; for being intolerant of Muslims, all the while they are being intolerant of our point of view.

The 'New Normal' rolls onward.

Something tells me that the Victory Mosque will be built and Radical Islam will have succeeded in slapping every American in our collective faces; all the while laughing in them for our choosing arrogant, ignorant, and politically correct leaders.

Yes, a great deal has changed since 9/11/2001. I didn't get the job at the hospital. I'm no longer married, and I no longer live in Texas. Life has moved on, but regardless of all of the changes that has occurred in nine years, one thing in my life has remained constant - I have never forgotten 9/11... And I never will.

All of us need to remember where we were and what we were doing on that fateful day. 9/11 was our Pearl Harbor! It was our 'day that will go down in infamy!' And it has forever changed this nation. We lost our innocence on 9/11. We have since had to grow up fast!

And we also need to pass this on to our posterity. Tell the children of that fateful day and encourage them to keep the memory alive in their generation, and all of the future generations. Never allow that day to fade into the dustbin of history.

Never forget those souls that died on that day, or those in the Armed Forces that have died since, protecting this nation from another attack. And never forget what the terrorists were wanting to do to America; because they are still plotting and planning more and more attacks against us.

The War on Terror will never truly end until every single terrorist is dead! We should continue our desire to rid the world of bastards like those that committed mass murder against America. If we ever give up that fight, then the towers fell for nothing and those that died on 9/11, and the those that have since died fighting the War on Terror will have done so in vain!

And remember: no amount of political correctness will defeat the enemy!

9/11/2001 - NEVER FORGET!

But that's just my opinion, I could be right!