It is strange now to think of kids knowing the word 'terrorism.' To me, as a kid, that word didn't exist. That threat didn't exist. Heck, forget just childhood, that word didn't exist in my vocabulary before my freshman year in high school.... and we all know what happened next.
It is strange to think of the U.S. pre-9/11. A U.S. without a daily terror alert, without those yellow ribbon magnets on people's cars, without intense security checkins at airports. September 10, 2001 was our last day of peace.
From George Kennedy's piece in the Columbia Missourian:
"Do you remember what you were doing nine years ago Friday? I don’t either.
Maybe we should, because it turns out to have been our last day of peace — our last day before 'homeland security,' before daily casualty reports from endless wars, before shoes off in airports, before perpetually elevated threat levels...
Of course, life as we knew it was about to crash. But who knew? Attorney General John Ashcroft that day released his list of seven top priorities. Counter-terrorism was not among them.
Time magazine for 9/10/01 carried an interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell. Asked whether he saw Saddam Hussein as a threat, he replied, 'I do not lose a lot of sleep about him late at night.'"And just as a side note/explanation, I know the picture is sort of corny. But post-9/11, I did something similar with an American flag at a St. Louis Rams game (okay, it was pretty much the exact same thing) and I was feeling a bit nostalgic. Plus, football season is upon us and I can't help it. (Photo featured on The Pioneer Woman)
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