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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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April
2004
Volume 6
- Number 3 |
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By Debbie Guha
When I hear the word ‘terrorism’, visions of army
soldiers invading a country, causing destruction and seizing control of
an
innocent, unsuspecting populace, pop into my mind.
In my own naïve view of the world, it is
something that I thought I was so far from; something which I never
thought
could touch me or those around me. But
the events of 9/11 changed that view and caused me to realize that
terrorism is
capable of targeting close to home.
I remember on that fateful day, I was sitting in class
during my junior year of college. As the
professor was going on and on about mathematical formulas and
equations, I
noticed a girl frantically run out of class. Soon
after, several students followed, and I heard a buzz
erupt
throughout the room of people asking each other what was going on. I heard a kid sitting behind me say that a
plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings, and he
snickered as he said so. At first, it
did seem like a joke and unbelievable to think that such a thing could
be
true. With the professor getting
agitated at this point with all the rumbling in class, someone informed
him of
the crisis, and we were allowed to leave class early.
I started realizing that something disastrous had
happened as I was walking back to my dorm, and noticed people in a
frenzy on
their cell phones trying to reach family members. There
was a frantic air surrounding campus
and when I reached back to my dorm, the severity of the matter finally
started
to sink in. I found my friends glued to
the media coverage on TV, crying as they watched, trying to get hold of
family,
and all perplexed as to why this was happening. We
watched as the second plane hit the second WTC
building; we cringed
when we learned that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon, and another
in
Pennsylvania. It was the most horrific
thing to ever happen, and not only to innocent people, but it was
happening to
people that many of us were connected to in some way. We soon learned
that the
attacks were caused at the hands of terrorists. It
was a feeling of shock, horror, confusion that settled
over us. The question that clouded all our
minds was
‘Why?’ Why did this happen? How could
this happen without any warning?
I believe everyone has been linked in some way to someone
whose life was lost in this tragedy. An
empty, sinking feeling empowers us when thinking back to it. Even more empowering is the anger and
frustration of not knowing why or how anyone could orchestrate such an
event
and cause such pain and destruction to envelop the world. But terrorism
is not
the result of a single disturbed individual, it is impact of a band of
individuals fighting for their own cause, focused on holding power for
their
people, and making the rest of the world powerless.
It is a perplexing phenomenon. I
often wonder what thoughts were actually
going through the minds of those who were flying the planes that
crashed into
these buildings. What caused them to
sacrifice their lives for their people? What
drives someone to terrorize a country and bring
destruction and
death upon people who they have never seen or met?
This is what I wonder most about terrorism.
Unlike other disasters that plague the world,
this is one that is in complete control of the human race.
And so I wonder, - what are the thoughts that
go through the minds of these deranged souls when they terrorize the
world? |