Twenty Years Ago

   On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was getting ready for work. It was about 7:30 am CDT, and the first plane had hit the World Trade Center. At the time, everyone thought this was some sort of tragic accident. We weren't aware, at the time, of the events that were taking place. When I got to work, it was all anyone was talking about. A small TV was set up in one of the rooms and as I ate lunch, I watched events unfold. Eventually, both towers collapsed. The Pentagon was also attacked and the White House was targeted by United Airlines Flight 93 but it crashed in Pennsylvania when some of the passengers overpowered the terrorists.

  Now 20 years later, I sit here watching 102 Minutes that Changed America on the History Channel. I caught the six part 9/11 series shown the National Geographic Channel over the course of 4 days. I still have a copy of the Racine Journal Times newspaper that reported on the attack as well as a copy of the Sept. 24th, 2001 issue of People Weekly. The cover shows United 175 mere moments before it hit the South Tower. One of the other things I have is a steel bracelet that commemorates the heroes of Flight 93.

  

We Want Information.

America is becoming more and more a police state. The news has been reporting that the NSA has been collecting data regarding all the phone calls made by Verizon customers over a period of time. It seems likely that the other phone companies' data has also been collected as well. The NSA is also building some of data storage facility capable of storing zettabytes of data. They claim that they're collecting this data in order to look for patterns that could provide them with information on terrorists. The problem with this is that they're collecting data on way too many people without a legitimate reason to do so. This violates the Fourth Amendment protection against illegal searches and seizures. The Information Age has given rise to the techno-dictatorship. Our government is attempting to gain unlimited access to every information database in the name of fighting terrorism. Given the amount of information that exists on every citizen, the government could potentially find out damn near anything they wanted to about someone. Checks and balances need to be reestablished before things get out of hand. 9/11 should no longer be used as an excuse for taking away our freedom. Big Brother needs a good bitch slap.