Fear

By Christie Petersen: I work as an office nurse and was driving on my way into work when I heard over the radio a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. At that time I wondered if the pilot had a medical condition, and I thought about the passengers on board and the people in the tower. I was hoping at that time that it was an isolated incident.

When I got into work, I continued listening to KDAT and pulled up MSN on my computer. I watched and listened as the second plane flew into the second tower and was overcome with fear. I knew in my gut that this was not a freak accident and the United States was under attack.

It was the first time in my 41 yrs that I had really felt afraid to be an American. I, like so many other people, believed that the goverment, CIA, FBI and military would never let anything like this happen in America. I no longer felt safe and in a sense became somewhat suspicious of foreigners, especially Muslims. That is not my nature and was something new I had felt for the first time -- distrust of a person's skin. I overcame that and decided not to let a few evil people color my view of all people.

My whole day on 9/11/01 was spent in shock and sadness. Today I am again proud to call myself an American and do not live in as much fear as I did, but I will never see the United States through rose-colored glasses. I have been following with great interest and pride what New York has been doing in building Tower One and the memorial. It is on my bucket list to go see it when it is all finished.

I live in Iowa, and I do not think I again will see the United States separated by individual states. We are united under one.