Good site! I'll stay reading! Keep improving!

Good site! I'll stay reading! Keep improving!

As a 57 year-old physician, I am assuredly old enough to remember America before 9/11. I believe that the collective Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder induced by 9/11 has, indeed, changed everything for everyone. However, American life, at least during my lifetime, has never been easy or idyllic. For anyone who wishes to ponder a song and album far more prescient than Paul Simon's, permit me to recommend 'For America' from Jackson Browne's still-timely album 'Lives in the Balance' (1986). Thanks for listening.

As a 57 year-old physician, I am assuredly old enough to remember America before 9/11. I believe that the collective Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder induced by 9/11 has, indeed, changed everything for everyone. However, American life, at least during my lifetime, has never been easy or idyllic. For anyone who wishes to ponder a song and album far more prescient than Paul Simon's, permit me to recommend 'For America' from Jackson Browne's still-timely album 'Lives in the Balance' (1986). Thanks for listening.

thats kind of the point brittany-

we bloggers here are all adults-

and the posts from the kids are cute, theyre sweet- but not too many here are going to get much from it.

i have a suspicion youre here because you know hafsa-

but the rest of us are here to disengage from pop and teenage slanted media-

anyone who prefaces an opinion with "i dont really know anything about it"
and then proceeds to talk about what they admittedly dont know- has to realize that they cant be taken as seriously

Mike,

This blog is written in Hafsa's POV and from Hafsa's POV or anyone, really, of our age group, the time before 9/11 was one in which, "There were less things to worry about. There was less to be afraid of". We were THIRTEEN and FOURTEEN years old. What did you worry about at that age? What did you understand about politics at that age? Be honest!

Please get a life.... Just in the last century there has been so much turmoil that although heinous....the world trade center attack pales in comparison...what we have is a very over-reactive government acting unilaterally and carrying out it's warped vision of world dominance

Please get a life.... Just in the last century there has been so much turmoil that although heinous....the world trade center attack pales in comparison...what we have is a very over-reactive government acting unilaterally and carrying out it's warped vision of world dominance

What sillines. The notion that "There were less things to worry about. There was less to be afraid of" is absurd.

Stop being so self-absorbed and learn a little about American history. THings are far better now than they were for the majority of American history prior to 9/11.

Here is one little example: for about 50 years until the collpase of the Soviet Union there was a very real risk of global annihilation from a nuclear war.

Like many narcissists, Ms Arain confuses her adult life as the extent of human history. She also might want to take into account that she was most likely in here early teens pre 9/11 and she might not be the best judge of the state of the country at that time.

I have often pondered the events of that day and all that has come out about what preceded that day. For my part, I believe that cynical, power hungry people in our country have virtually hihacked what happened on that day, moulded, fashioned it into a virtually eternal war that can have no end, used if for their own partisan gain and continue to have a political stake in the notion that the whole world changed on 9-11.

Well, the whole world didn't change. Only in America have we taken the events of that day a nauseating excuse to upend our entire Constitutional system of law and checks and balances. Only in America did we use 9-11 as a pretext to settle old scores with a country and a dictator who, albeit a thug and a murderer, had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks. Only in America did we actually declare war on a word. And we have used that word in the most specious and self serving way. And only in America did we forsake the tried and true methods of catching and prosecuting such murderers and thugs as Bin Laden in favor of a military policy that has brough us more American deaths than on 9-11, and God only knows how many innocent Iraqi deaths.

No my friends. The world didn't change after 9-11. We did. For the worse. We have become the very thing we hated most.

I have often pondered the events of that day and all that has come out about what preceded that day. For my part, I believe that cynical, power hungry people in our country have virtually hihacked what happened on that day, moulded, fashioned it into a virtually eternal war that can have no end, used if for their own partisan gain and continue to have a political stake in the notion that the whole world changed on 9-11.

Well, the whole world didn't change. Only in America have we taken the events of that day a nauseating excuse to upend our entire Constitutional system of law and checks and balances. Only in America did we use 9-11 as a pretext to settle old scores with a country and a dictator who, albeit a thug and a murderer, had nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks. Only in America did we actually declare war on a word. And we have used that word in the most specious and self serving way. And only in America did we forsake the tried and true methods of catching and prosecuting such murderers and thugs as Bin Laden in favor of a military policy that has brough us more American deaths than on 9-11, and God only knows how many innocent Iraqi deaths.

No my friends. Tworld didn't change after 9-11. We did. For the worse. We have become the very thing we hated most.

Guys, when I look at you, I see -- you Americans are all EXCELLENT people. But when I look at Muslims at their forums -- I also see that they are EXCELLENT people. May be there's a better way how excellent people may to come to agreement with each other?

I hope 9/11 never happens again, and I believe we are doing a good job on the war on terror.

i just this minute heard a quote on washington journal and it is really right on here-
an old man comes up to a podium at a university and in shis speech he says-

"things are not the way they used to be, and they never were."

i HAVE taveled across this country, by bus several times and drove from . cal to PA-

i grew up watching my relatives and the generation before me and all the poor in america shipped off to vietnam and spit at on the street when they returned-

my mother went through the paranoia of the mccarthy era-
my dad in korea-

and i have hope and others still have hope and you will pick up the gauntlet and stay hopeful too-
i celebrate your hope young dear and encourage you to keep hoping
http://www.familiesforfreedom.org/
http://www.belovedcommunitiesnet.org/

2 grassroots orgs to keep your hope alive

A time of honor is coming to you, America. For when this Bush leaves the White House, he will go out in honor not because of the war, but because of what will come out of the caves in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I will light a fire in the heart of the next President and something unusual will happen in this nation in the months of November and December. I am talking about what the enemy has planned and what God has planned is even bigger! For when November comes they will say we stopped another attack in this nation.

The Spirit of God says today, watch what I do in Pakistan and in the borders of Afghanistan for out of the caves I will bring them forth one at a time as America unites with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. As I send the troops into Pakistan I will allow them to catch the militants there the terrorists there that are harboring in the caves and in the rocks. For I will not let them go away without getting the vengeance on them for what they did to My people in America.

Bill, maybe she, like a lot of people OUR age don't remember it because we were so young before 9/11 and therefore were less involved with/informed about the politics of today.

Yes, I also miss that America that you miss even though you had not trvelled through all its length and breadth before 9/11.

I miss the pre-9/11 America through the totality of east-coast states I had travelled during the years 1970-78, before I travelled to Iran and parts of Afghanistan. I could only imagine how paradisiac these lands that are sung in the poetry of Omar Khayyam, Jala-ud-Din Rumi, Mirza Ghalib, Ferdows, Hatez and countless others would have been before the Western imperialists and the Communists came and ravaged the land. In his book 'Millenium', Felipe Fernandez Armesto calls them 'the garden of Islam'.

But, imperium has had its day -- maybe we have learnt our lessons, as even Niall Ferguson tells us, but maybe we have learnt it only imperfectly.

For now, my prayer is that they don't bomb Iran back to the stone age, especially considering that the UN and IAEA have certified that the Iranian authorities are cooperating with the UN inspectors regarding its nuclear research programme.

Yes, God bless peace-loving Americans and the rest of humanity, and let us return soon to peaceful coexistence and enjoy nature.

Bill, where did she say she washed her hands? ... And what exactly should she be washing off? 9/11 was different than previous incidents because of the very fall out you are talking about! O_o

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There's just nothing here you can say without people barking back at you, can you, Hafsa?

So unfortunate because I understand what you are saying. America IS a different place. It is controlled by fear and polarized ideologies. And I think you are on to something about how we were kids when 9/11 happened and that was kind of the wake-up call to the real world. "Hi, welcome to adulthood. Awful things happen. Good luck!"

I didn't think you were complaining in a way that suggested you aren't doing anything. You're doing a lot more than most people are to make this country (and world) a better place.

*sigh*

If America changed because some religious nuts wanted to teach liberal New Yorkers the Pet Goat Lesson, then the terrorists have won.

You barely remember America before Sept. 11? Well, that's a cop out. That's an excuse to wash your hands of the last 6 years. There is no excuse to act as if Sept. 11 was something that had never happened before. The fact is that we have been attacked before and we as a nation always responded correctly. This time, however we allowed an unelected President and a fascist majority in Congress to create war in a nation that did not attack us. And the terrorist group that did attack us is just as strong now as it was in early 2001. What if Americans allowed our leaders to act that way after Pearl Harbor? Can you imagine attacking a nation other than Japan/Germany in the 1940's?
If your feeling nostalgic for the America of pre-Sept. 11, what your really looking for is a government that isn't a fear-mongering, hypocritical, lying, unethical war machine. So quit complaining and do something about it, starting now and demand that your elected officials be open, honest and well, American.