Hi Angel
I follow Pandora's blog and discovered your questions. Unfortunately, I don't know if some of those questions will ever really be answered to America's satisfaction. All I can do is give you some of my own thoughts.
Why did it happen? There are probably countless reasons. Political: the planners wanted to show the world that the US is basically weak and morally corrupt. They struck at, what was perhaps, the very symbol of what the US stands for. Wealth and power. They struck for religious reasons. Islam teaches that it is acceptable to attack and kill anyone that refuses to acknowledge that the way of Allah is the only true way. They call it Jihad, or Holy War. You may even be thinking that "We didn't do anything to them!" I read somewhere that the Muslim mind is one that looks back: is more concerned with their history and real or imagined slights and insults. Here in the West, events like the Crusades is little more than ancient history. Something to be studied or read about. For them, it represents the basest of insults handed to them by Christians, and they will not forget that. And some people are just filled with rage, pain, a need to kill and destroy, and are determined to share it with the world. I would encourage you to read through some of the history leading up to the Crusades. I think you will see what I mean.
Did 9/11 unify America? For a time, absolutely, it did. Ask your mom, your dad. On 9/10, you saw American flags in all the places you would expect them. At schools, government buildings, etc. But after the attack, on 9/12 and the weeks following, you saw flags everywhere! Guys with pickup trucks mounted several flags in the bed. You saw them on cars, people wearing flag pins or shirts, businesses hanging huge flags off of their buildings. They were everywhere. People all over the country lined up to donate blood and plasma for shipment to New York, when the supplies they had on hand were more than enough. People wanted to help. They wanted to feel that they were contributing, helping put people's lives back together. The Air Force claimed the last words heard from Flight 93 as the motto of their fighter wings: "Let's roll!" In the months and years to follow, the Navy used salvaged steel from the World Trade Center to build American warships (Look up the USS New York). As has happened so many times in American history, we discovered that we were strong! And in that strength, we stood up, with one voice and told the world "We will not fall. We will not falter. This will never happen again!" There were no republicans, no democrats, no rich, no poor. Just Americans united in grief and anger. For maybe the first time in US history, we were truly one people.
Unfortunately, while we have never forgotten the events of 9/11, or the horror of watching American passenger jets crashing into American buildings (which now you can only find in youtube, because it was decided by the media that the images of that day were too disturbing), I believe that we have forgotten how it felt. We ask ourselves, "why don't they like us?" "Bring our troops home, they shouldn't fight and die on foreign sands. It isn't our war."
You impress me for even asking the questions you did. I would encourage you to seek out those answers for yourself. Go to youtube and watch the videos of that terrible day, with your mom. Look at how it makes you feel. I think you will find some of your answers in your own heart.
Let me share a couple of my favorite quotes with you, to think about. "Peace isn't the absence of war. It is the presence of justice." "There is a peace that can only be found on the other side of war."
Finally, I read about your being selected as Cadet of the month. Awesome job! I'm sure you've picked up that I am all about the history. There is a brother and sisterhood of veterans that have fought, bled and died for the United States of America. It's membership stretches back into the nation's earliest days. You have taken your first steps as a new member of that club. You might roll your eyes and think that it isn't THAT big of a deal. Yes it is. It is a beginning. And even if you never serve in the military, you will carry a little bit of it inside you. Be proud of that. Wear your uniform with pride. Never let anyone tell you it doesn't matter, because it does. And as one vet to another... I'm proud of you.
I didn't mean to write yo a book, but I hope I gave you some things to think about and more importantly, to talk about!
