2008 Woodie Awards
9/11: Are we safer?
Jessica Reho
Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Features
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"In some ways I think it is safer; in others, I feel that we are more at risk. Domestic travel certainly is more safe - airport security has definitely improved as has our consciousness of vulnerability. I think we are less secure as international views of the United States have become increasingly hostile and critical. I think we are now aware that we are vulnerable whereas before we didn't have this strong of a sense that violence and foreign terrorism could strike our country."
-Joanne Green, associate professor of political science
"We are marginally safer because we all have been exposed to and forced to acknowledge that there is a threat against this country. This has prompted the government to take an active role against terrorism. The problem is that, as a whole, America has a very short memory. We are all too willing to forget that there are people out there who simply hate us. There is nothing that we can do to appease them, and they will continue to try to kill us. Most of the country is perfectly willing to live under the illusion that if we leave them alone, they will go away and not harm us. We were 'leaving them alone' before Sept. 11 and they still attacked us. Basically my answer is, yes we are safer, but we are quickly falling backward into being unsafe again."
-Lance Willingham, junior political science major
Compiled by staff writer Jessica Reho
-Joanne Green, associate professor of political science
"We are marginally safer because we all have been exposed to and forced to acknowledge that there is a threat against this country. This has prompted the government to take an active role against terrorism. The problem is that, as a whole, America has a very short memory. We are all too willing to forget that there are people out there who simply hate us. There is nothing that we can do to appease them, and they will continue to try to kill us. Most of the country is perfectly willing to live under the illusion that if we leave them alone, they will go away and not harm us. We were 'leaving them alone' before Sept. 11 and they still attacked us. Basically my answer is, yes we are safer, but we are quickly falling backward into being unsafe again."
-Lance Willingham, junior political science major
Compiled by staff writer Jessica Reho
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