I really don't believe that I have to set this one up for you: this is me doing my best to sort through the myriad of emotions that have come up since the September 11th attacks. I'm still trying to sort through it all; it still seems unreal to me at times. In time, I believe I will finally come to grips with reality.
However, I do know this: we need to kill whoever did this. I don't see how anyone, under any circumstances, could feel justified in doing what has happened. Its horrific. Its mind-boggling. To think that we've come so far in "civilization", only to be tossed back several thousand years in a social aspect. Its sad.
The "War on Terrorism" is poised to cause a greater number of casualties here at home, due to the pure ignorance of the American people. People who look "like a Muslim" are harassed and persecuted, despite the fact that they had no more to do with this than we did. This is just terrible. One of the reasons we are fighting this war is because American ideals are at steak; however, when a US citizen kills another US citizen just because they look like they might be "the enemy", the murderer walks all over the murdered citizen's rights, not only as a human being, but as a US citizen.
A US citizen should not have to worry about being hit in the face by a baseball bat when they get up in the morning. A US citizen shouldn't have to worry about a drunk redneck walking into his store and overturning display stands left and right, just because signs in the store are in a language that "looks Muslim". A US citizen shouldn't start sweating bullets in the middle of the night when they hear a noise outside their window, not knowing if it is a hate mob or an overactive cat. A US citizen shouldn't have to worry about the safety of their family.
We must understand that by persecuting the US citizens that are targets for hate, we ourselves are no better than the people who hijacked those planes. Sure, we're not running planes into buildings like they did, but we are singling out people to hate due to something as simple as their look or their religion. These people have just as much a right to the pursuit of life as we do.
I don't know what else to say; the whole thing still kinda sickens me, especially when I think about what legal citizens are doing to other legal citizens. Its sad, and above all, it isn't American. It isn't America when we hate each other for simple, inane reasons.