I wish I had a heroic story to tell. I wish I was there, amidst the rubble and smoke, saving innocent lives while the media captured my every move. I wish I was there with a video camera, recoding a historic documentary that would be put on every news channel in the country. I wish I was there, advising Mayor Giuliani about the attacks and how he should respond. I wish I was there, at the World Trade Center, feeling the adrenaline pulse through my veins on 9/11.

God, I’m so naïve. Why am I wishing for those things? The people that experienced the terrorist attacks on that horrific day were going through a living hell on September 11. I don’t want to experience that. I don’t want to save the lives of the victims and be put on the television. I don’t even want to imagine being there, at the World Trade Center, on 9/11.

God, I’m so naïve. I should want to be there and save the victims; be a hero. But I don’t. I don’t want anything to do with 9/11. I just want to block it out, pretend it never happened. But that makes me sound naïve. I can’t win, I am always so naïve.

I don’t even have an interesting story to tell about that day. I was just a normal 1st grader, wandering around the school, wondering why all of the teachers were crying. I slowly pieced together a simple explanation of what had happened as the day slowly went on. When I got home, my parents told me about the attacks. They told me about how the evil men killed a bunch of people by crashing airplanes into tall buildings. So, then I innocently asked my mom, “I thought metal was invincible. Does this mean that metal bend metal?” Oh, I soon learned that metal can do a lot more than bend metal. God, I was so naïve.

I still don’t know everything about the attacks. Last year, I wrote a fictional series of short stories that chronicles the fateful day of a World Trade Center employee. I got almost all of the facts about the attacks wrong. I described that the smoke in the buildings was clear enough that people could see through it. In fact, I didn’t even realize that the Twin Towers fully collapsed! God, I’m so naïve!

However, at least I’m not ignorant. I wish I could say the same about other people. Lately, I have been hearing rumors that the terrorist attacks were staged by the United States government. People have been scrutinizing the video evidence from the attacks and saying that a plane never hit the Pentagon and that bombs had been planted inside the Twin Towers. Those people are too ignorant to believe in George Bush, the President that they voted for. Those people are too ignorant to watch Bin Laden’s terrorist tapes in which he rants about the attacks and how successful they were. Those people, more than anything, are too ignorant to take a hard, solid look at the victims of that tragic day. How do the victims feel? How do they honestly feel?

I don’t know if the attacks were staged. I don’t even know most of the facts about the attacks. However, on thing that I do know is that thousands of people were killed on that tragic day. Thousands of families lost a loved one on that tragic day. Millions more were emotionally scarred on that tragic day. How do they feel? How do they feel when people tell them that the attacks weren’t real, that they were staged? More appropriately, how would You feel if You were one of those people that lost someone on that tragic day?

Think about it. Think about it long and hard, because You may be one of the people that fall victim to the next “staged” attack. How would You feel?

I don’t think the attacks were staged. I have as much of a right to my opinion as you do to yours. You can believe what you want but, God, you’re so naïve.