Being Jeff Stone

On September 11, 2001, my mother turned 50 years old, our nation was attacked, and I was a college student taking a writing class. Our final project for the class changed on September 11. We, students, were given the assignment to write about our feelings of the events of that day. What follows is my assignment for that class exactly as it was written almost 8 years ago. I’m publishing it today on the 8th anniversary of that tragic event. The original title of the essay is . . .

The Greater Tragedy

If tomorrow all the things were gone that I’ve worked for all my life, and I had to start again with just my children and my wife, I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today, ’cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.

These emotional lyrics performed by Lee Greenwood perfectly capture and express the deep-rooted love and passion I have for freedom. I was raised in a home where we thanked God for our freedom of choice and where nobody was allowed to speak when our national anthem was being sung at the beginning of a ball game. My father and I both gave several years of our life to our country in an effort to protect and preserve the freedoms that so many of us take for granted. Because of my feelings toward the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” I took it personally when terrorists eternally altered the physical and emotional face of my country. They attacked me; they attacked my family.

Every emotion that can be imagined entered my heart and mind when I was attacked. At first I was confused; I didn’t really understand what happened. The reality of the moment had not set in yet. What’s going on? What just happened? What am I seeing? The buildings are crumbling to the ground. What happened? What’s going to happen? The next two emotions to strike my heart were pain and fear. With tears streaming down my face, unanswered questions and confusing thoughts entered my mind. Who could do this? Why did they do this? How many children are going to discover that they don’t have a mommy or daddy anymore? How many husbands and wives were taken from their loving families? What will the children do? What will happen to this nation? Will my children grow up in a time of war? My daughter, who is too young to even understand what happened, is afraid to go to sleep. “Mommy, what’s going to happen? I’m scared; turn off the TV. Are the bad guys gonna get us?” The bad guys did get us. They won this battle. Our economy was shutdown. We stopped using our most effective mode of travel. Businesses shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of people are now jobless. Thousands are dead. Everywhere people stopped to mourn and grieve the losses of this tragic event. Will this happen again? Why do we think we can prevent a future attack if we couldn’t prevent this one? Will our government survive? Will we have someone who can lead us to victory? People are terrified; Mark one up for the enemy.

I became physically ill when I thought of the hate and driving motivation that was necessary to bring about such an unbelievable act of evil. Years of careful planning and strategy and timing were at work here. These terrorists were willing to give their lives for their cause. Are we willing to do the same? Once I started facing reality and accepting what happened, strangely, I became angry with Americans. Suddenly every politician, radio announcer, and talk show host is talking about God and Prayer and pride in our country. What took them so long? Unexpectedly, children are learning “God Bless America” in the schools. Suddenly those things are okay to talk about, but yesterday, they were “politically incorrect,” or saying those things, might “offend” someone. There is no doubt that the attack on America is a tragic event, and people will never be the same, but I feel that the greater offense has been occurring right here in our own heart. Many years ago, there was a time when Americans actually liked each other.

For years, I have had fears and worries about this generation and the future generations. People today refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. Americans like to hurt people, even other Americans, especially other Americans who don’t agree with them on politics or religion. Who will be qualified to be the president in 20 years? When will parents start teaching their children? Why do people think that the school system is responsible for raising children? When will people swallow their selfish pride and love each other? Why is there so much rage in a sixteen year old who shouldn’t have a care in the world? What are we doing wrong that causes a child to take the lives of his classmates? These questions have plagued my mind and dominated my thoughts for several years. We live in a country where people have no empathy for others and life is of no value. I was beginning to lose hope.

America needed a wake up call, and we got it. In a world where “political correctness” governs our actions, and it’s taboo to talk about God or Prayer, and people don’t pledge their allegiance to our flag, it’s no wonder that so many Americans hate each other. America was founded on beliefs like, “IN GOD WE TRUST,” and “One Nation under God.” We have let the fear of offending someone destroy what, at one time, made us a great people: our acceptance of each others’ differences. We are all different. Non-Americans created America. We all came here to be in a world where people would respect our opinions and beliefs. That’s what made us Americans.

The time has come for Americans to accept each others’ differences, for malicious and hateful bipartisanship to cease. The time for Americans to love more and hate less is now. Today is the day that people are not embarrassed to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. This minute is the minute that we forgive others and respect and embrace each others’ differences for what they truly are: the heartbeat of our land of the free. The time and the place for unity and harmony is here and now.

Tears of joy and hope filled my eyes and heart when I learned that many “Musicians” decided to quit “singing” about killing cops and “ghetto” violence, and hate and prejudice. Our world is changing, and I say, “It’s about time.” God bless the enemy! Thank God for the enemy! Without the bad we don’t appreciate the good. Obviously, it would be best if we could have learned this lesson without the assistance of our enemy, but finally, people are feeling empathy toward their brothers and sisters. As pained, and angered, and confused as I am, I also know that there is nothing we can do to change the past. We MUST move forward. We must learn from this tragedy; we must mourn for the loss of our loved ones, and we must put an end to terrorism. We must not let this happen again, but we MUST move on. Life will not be stopped. America has realized this, and we are beginning to rise to the challenge of living as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It’s sad but true that it took an earth-shattering event like this to get Americans to like each other, but that’s what happened. Deep in my soul, I can feel a hope, a hope that this evil act of terrorism has given us a common goal, and we will truly love our American brothers and sisters, even if they are different from us. The sight of the Red-White-and-Blue as far as the eye can see gives new meaning to the profound words of our former President Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” What we can all do for our country is have hope. Have hope that the war will end and that we will win. Have hope that the children and teenagers of today will love their country and lead us in the future. I want the terrorists to pay for this, but I want something even more than that: I want us to live up to our true name, “The United States of America.”

From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee, across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea, from Detroit down to Houston, and New York to L.A., there’s pride in every American heart and it’s time we stand and say, that I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free, and I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me, and I’d gladly stand up, next to you, and defend her, still, today ’cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land. God bless the U.S.A.

Nothing unites a group of people like the enemy, and last month, the enemy attacked our group of people. Since that day, everyone in America has felt some degree of the pain that was felt by the people directly affected in New York City. Many have shed tears for these tragic losses. Many have felt anger, rage or hatred toward the enemy. All of us have shared similar feelings about this terrible event. It’s about time Americans shared something with each other.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.