Too busy defending civil liberties in the wake of increased domestic security. They are still holding their breath in New York City, where the World Trade Center was reduced to a 7-story pile of rubble. And we are, too, in Central Texas. When the bombs fell in Afghanistan, the wounds from Sept. 11 were opened all over again for all of us. Unlike before Sept. 11, Americans now realize what most other people in the world already knew.
Innocent people die every day.
Violence is a way of life in some places. Now our sense of safety has been shattered. The TV image of bin Laden denouncing the U.S. government from a stronghold in Afghanistan was as eerie as the ghostlike images of New Yorkers fleeing the World Trade Center. And now we don't know where terrorists will attempt to strike next. We didn't expect the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.