9/11 15 Years Later
It’s hard to believe the 15th Anniversary of 9/11 just passed.
Many of us were toddlers when that horrific event happened, and, some of us, were not even born until well past that date.
But no matter our age, all of us recognize images of the four planes that forcefully entered our history, saddening and maiming us along the way. We have seen the many documentaries of the ash-covered people emerging from the destruction. The sad faces of the firefighters and paramedics as they recognized they had lost many of their own.
But 15 years later, questions remains: What now? Are we safer? Are we more aware or more afraid?
While there are still questions, the aftermath is clear. We have tighter security at the airports. Now, we all huddle by the escalators at Denver International Airport, fighting the crowd to catch a glimpse of our loved ones. Prisons were created and maintained to hold terrorists. We can no longer attend a sporting event, concert, or any large gathering without our belongings and our bodies searched. “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our tallest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America,” said former President George W. Bush during his 9/11 address to the nation.
A more extensive, more deadly repercussion of 9/11 was the invasion of Iraq. During the war, we lost over 4,400 more American soldiers (The Statistics Portal Number of U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq war from 2003 to 2016) to add to the nearly 3,000 people (CNN September 11, 2001: Background and timeline of the attacks) already lost in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania field. All of them heroes. Each of them paying the price in a different, but a no less difficult way.
On May 2nd, 2011with the killing of Osama bin Laden it didn’t seem to lessen the blow or the memories of that time. Now they are commemorated by a museum so no one ever forgets.
But we are here. Fifteen years later. What do we, the ThunderRidge High School students, think about this event and its impact on the world we are living in and will have to work in? According to Samantha Walker, “9/11 I think definitely changed how we live. I mean, our security system is completely different now than it was before then. I think because of it, wa are more paranoid and that affects how we travel and find a job. Even the smallest things nowada
