  
Like most Americans, I watched in stunned horror as the World Trade Center crumbled and fell to the ground. This isn't really happening, I thought. Even now, days later, it seems surreal, like something out of a movie. If only this were so. As the fatality count seems to be nearing 5,000 people, most of us are at a loss as to how we should proceed. We are at war. We must retaliate. We must let terrorists know that their actions will not be tolerated without retribution. War translates into deaths, even in the best scenario. We can't possibly enter a country and hold the perpetrators of these horrible actions responsible without human casualties along the way. Who do we kill? Who do we allow to survive? What will our actions of retribution accomplish? Will it stop terrorists from planning more such attacks against our nation? If not, what will? For years we have managed to survive without addressing these questions, because circumstances such as those we were dealt on Tuesday were not at the very door of our society. While attacks have been launched against us in the past, not since Pearl Harbor has our country been victimized to the degree that the entire country is inclined to say, "This is war. We must go in and take out the people responsible." Tonight I watched as a 15 year-old boy of Palestinian descent in New York related the story of how a man spat in his face at a chance encounter after asking him his heritage. "At first I was angry, but after I thought about it, it made me even prouder to be an American," he said. When asked if he would be willing to go to war to defend his country, his answer was yes, when he turns 17 he'll be ready to go. I have a 15 year-old child. This sort of decision should not be forced on a child of this age. There are no easy answers, but I can't help but feel that declaring war on an entire race of people and bombing the daylights out of their country is just plain wrong. After all, we are the country that produced Timothy McVeigh. If his victims had been in another country would it have been fair for that country to retaliate against the United States based on the action of one man, or even a small group of people? If we were to take this kind of action, aren't we no better than those who attacked us? In the end, the terrorists' goal to rip our country apart did not succeed. Instead, it has brought the people of our country closer together and brought about a resurgence of patriotism that my children have never before witnessed. This resurgence of patriotism is only experienced during a time of war. God bless America. God help us all. Computer Stuff | Downtown Carrboro Map | Events | Prices | Restaurants | UniqueOrn Enterprises 
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