Shortly after September 11th, 2001, I wrote this piece (also available as a PDF). I felt profoundly disturbed by the events of September 11th, mainly because I was afraid of how it might change my country's mentality and policies. I shared my writing with family, friends, and my colleagues at school and I also tried to have it published, despite the warnings of some who said I should be more cautious in America's red-white-and-blue charged climate. One newspaper was enthusiastic, but said it was too long. I regard it as a failure on my part that I was not as diligent as I should have been in getting this piece out there — if more voices had been heard right at the beginning of the post-9/11 era, our country may have taken time out for introspection, and taken a less hysterical political approach.