9/11
Authored By Brian
September 11th is the day before my birthday. 5 years ago I was about to turn 25 when my friend Jason woke me at 6:30AM calling to say “World War 3 is starting”. Tomorrow I turn 30 and have a message to the terrorists:
- I will continue to travel. The fear of random acts of violence will not stop me from touring my country nor others around the globe. I flew 4 days after September 11th. I was in Madrid’s Atocha train station just days before it was bombed and have been back since. My itinerary is ignoring your agenda.
- I will be open minded. No knee-jerk reactions because someone is a Muslim, wears a turban or comes from the middle east. Part of traveling is meeting and understanding other cultures so that I might be more tolerant and vice versa. Accepting your culture weakens your extremism.
- I will hold ourselves to our highest standards. We can not engage in the same type of behavior as the terrorists internationally nor domestically. They hate our freedom so we must embrace it, not restrict it. That means we, as Americans, must welcome unfamiliar ideas and people and respect the right of individual thought and freedom of speech.
We’re not always perfect, but let’s agree to keep trying. That means you too, George W.
