9/11 Anniversary

Today is the fifth anniversary of the terrible attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon, and the failed attack that resulted in a plane crashing in Pennsylvania. I still remember that morning when I woke up to head off for me 8:30 tutorial and the shock when I heard the Twin Towers had been attacked and had collapsed an hour later. I also remember once visiting the Twin Towers on a High School Trip to New York back in 1999. They were one of the highlights of the New York Trip and in fact I found them to be a better viewing point of the whole city despite being less visited than the Empire State Building. Considering New York has no mountains like Vancouver does, the Twin Towers were the best view of the city where one could get a full 360 degree view and see for over a 100 miles on a clear day in any direction. I feel fortunate to have been up these buildings, but it is also in some ways kind of scary knowing that had I been in the exact same location on 9/11 I wouldn't be alive today since I was above where the planes struck and only four people who were above where the plane struck survived.

In the past, I have been quite critical of American foreign policy, however, no matter how much one disagrees with a country's foreign policy, that never gives someone the right to randomly attack and kill innocent civilians. Such behavior is unacceptable and should never be tolerated no matter what the circumstances. I would also like to point out that most Muslims are good people who share the same shock the rest of us do towards those attacks so we should blame the religious extremists, not ordinary Muslims who are peace loving people and don't believe in such an attack. Osama Bin Ladin and his ilk represent a small minority who use a peaceful religion to justify their own hatreds.

On today's fifth anniversary, I send my full condolences to all families who lost loved ones and to the American people.