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By Adrian Haymond When I saw the planes fly
into the World Trade Center towers, it shocked me with alternate
feelings of utter amazement, abject horror and deep sadness. The
fact that a jetliner full of people was rammed into a building at
such speed that the damage resembled exit wounds from a bullet
keeps playing back in my mind even now. As one tower fell, followed
by the second, it felt as if a part of me and a part of America was
lost. A symbol of American power and vibrancy was destroyed by the
acts of single-minded people who declared war on an unsuspecting
populace. Much like the New York skyline, the American psyche will
never be the same. As I watched the scenes replay on television,
another feeling began to take over a feeling that I did not want to
acknowledge existed within me. A deep-seated type of anger began to
seethe within. This was not the explosive, volcanic kind that comes
from knee-jerk reactions to events, but a more dangerous and
frightening feeling that could easily turn into hatred and
intolerance of everything not American. And who in America can
blame me? My country was attacked and my brothers and sisters
(white, black, Asian and others) were ambushed and killed. Our own
planes were used to attack and destroy our symbols of military and
economic power, and we could do nothing to stop them. As events
unfolded, it was only the sheer heroism of another doomed load of
passengers that perhaps saved the White House from
annihilation. And then to see people dancing in the streets
and passing out candy over the snuffing out of thousands of lives
was almost more than I could handle. It’s a blessing that I do not
tend to act on my first impulse, and as time has gone by, the
bubbling, boiling anger has been replaced by a desire for a return
to normalcy. But it will never be "normal" again, because events
have been started that will continue to reverberate for years to
come. As this realization slowly comes over me, I begin to fear.
 Not fear of more terrorist attacks, I assume they will come
and we will deal with them. No, the fear is due to what I’ve seen
on television, what I see on the Internet chat lines, what I hear
on the radio and what I’ve observed at various times in our
nation”šs history. I know that many in this country and around
the world will turn their anger toward innocent people of Arabic
descent and Muslim persuasions. I can foresee harassment of women
and children, bombings of religious centers, and attacks on people
based on how they look. I can see irrational people arguing that
anyone with Arabic descent should have their citizenship revoked
and be deported immediately. In short, I foresee a
battle-scarred nation overreacting to the immense tragedy that has
just unfolded before our very eyes. Before we go down the road to
intolerance and retribution, we must ask ourselves if we want to
become our enemy. To me, those who committed this ghastly crime
against humanity will not see Allah in paradise, but will burn in
the deepest hell, because only the most warped will see the killing
of thousands of innocent people as a ticket to glory. It boggles
the mind that there will be some who will anoint these terrorists
a"s "heroes," calling them "brave and courageous" in the battle
against "the great Satan. To an extent, I understand the reasoning
behind targeting the Pentagon, a symbol of America”šs
military, but why kill so many civilians and destroy a completely
civilian building? To prove a point? All it proved was that these
sick minds completely misunderstood what Americans are made
of. But if we are not careful, our minds will follow the same
warped reasoning as the terrorists”š and we will not be any
better. Already, people are calling for massive attacks on
countries. A news poll on ABC showed that the majority of people in
this country would attack another and not care about collateral
damage (a euphemism for the unfortunate killing of civilians). The
reasoning? This is war. Already, there have been reports of bomb
threats to mosques and Islamic centers in Texas. Even as far away
as Australia, the repercussions are being felt; reports have come
on radio stations that buses carrying Islamic children were
stoned. In Atlanta, those of Arabic descent have taken a low
profile, staying off the streets. Somehow, this is reminiscent of
some of this country”šs darker chapters. We should not let our
anger as justified as it may be cause us to indiscriminately cancel
the freedoms of entire ethnic groups or put their lives in peril.
We should learn from the Japanese internment camps and the
oppression of African Americans to guard against the tendency to
cause harm to innocent Muslim/Arab citizens and residents. Instead,
we should react only when the facts dictate it, and do so in a
reasonable manner. Bombing the Arab world out of existence, as
some people have clamored for, will do nothing but harm America’s
long-term health and destroy whatever chance we have for obtaining
help and assistance from other nations to combat terrorism. Our
major objective should be eliminating those responsible and
standing against those who would harbor such monsters. The
terrorists were not brave; they were cowards hiding behind an
ideology. They were not saints or heroes, but more closer to
brainwashed rogues and devils who are utterly selfish and callous.
They were not smart, but manipulative and evil. They merely saw an
opening and imagined doing the greatest damage while exploiting
that opening. And they certainly did not plan well, for they did
not know that instead of disintegrating the United States, such an
attack will only galvanize this country. After this, there is no
black, white, yellow or brown; there is only one America facing its
enemies. But if we allow our feelings of grief and anger to destroy
innocent people in the process, then the terrorists did win after
all. Let’s not give them that satisfaction.