Darlene Perry
As I was watching the today show yesterday, there was a breaking news story that enfolded with said that a bomb had hit the North Trade Tower in NYC. My cousin lives only 4 blocks from the empire State building in SoHo. I tried to call her to see if she saw anything and to check on her because she is 8 ½ months pregnant. I could not get through. A moment later as I was watching live TV, I saw a plane crash through the South Trade tower building. I could not believe it. I felt truly ill.
As news reports were coming in, it became apparent that these attacks were all connected and were coordinated to occur at the same time. To me, the worst part about the whole morning was the fact, that there was no visible enemy. There was no way of protecting anyone. The other aspect that was most frightening was that the area around Washington was not safe enough for the president to return. It is imperative that the U.S. government must be seen to be visible and strong during any crisis. America must be seen to be in full control.
My husband is an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps stationed in Camp Lejeune. He called me to tell me they were locking the base down and all the U.S. bases around the world were in Threat Condition Delta - the highest state of alert. He was in meetings all day discussing troop deployments. Many of the troops left for NYC this morning.
Lastly, I hope that the U.S. will be very careful in the investigation. We cannot have a repeat of the Oklahoma City bombing aftermath, when the TV media said the terrorists were of "Arab decent[descent]"! As we know it turned out to be an American. As angry as we are, we need to always keep our heads and think rationally.