remembering 9/11

Yes, it's been 13 years since the terrorist attacks in the USA that fateful September day. No, I was not in the USA at that time. I was, in fact, a fourth-year university student in the Philippines then. 

I remember that night...

I was driving from Mayondon, Los Banos, on my way home after feeding my chickens (the site and the subjects of my undergraduate research project). The FM station I was listening to interrupted regular programming for a special news report about planes flying so close to the New York twin towers. At first, I thought someone was having a good laugh and that it was just a joke... a bad one, in fact. I was fuming when I arrived home because I thought that the radio jocks were just evil that evening. 

When I got home, I found my dad in his rare do-not-disturb, open-the-garage-gate-yourself moods. My mom was equally quiet. Only the sound of the telly from the living room could be heard in the garage. I was about to greet my folks and rant about the news I'd heard on my way over but they just shushed me. My parents were glued to the CNN coverage. That's when I realized that I wasn't being spoofed... There really were airplanes flying low! In fact, I was about to sit down in front of the telly when the first plane crashed into one of the buildings! I can't remember now if we even ate dinner that night because we're just staring at the horrific images captured live, on the other side of the planet.

Events that occurred that day have strongly influenced the global sociopolitical climate we are in at the present. I wonder... what if 9/11 didn't happen, what would the peace and order situation be like today?