We're now America the Terrified

In the commentary, "We're now America the Terrified" by Leonard Pitts, Jr, found in the Austin American Statesmen, the post 9/11 America is discussed.

He states that since 9/11, Americans have been in a constant state of panic. I couldn't agree more. I remember, back in 8th grade Science class, when I first heard the news. It didn't seem to affect Americans then, but by the time I was a sophomore and junior in high school I could tell that that one action had changed the mindset of America drastically.

People were seeing terrorists everywhere; anyone that was even close to Middle Eastern descent was looked at funny. It seems to me that even the government was highly suspicions of anyone that was living in American who were originally from the Middle East.

The example Pitts uses in his article is the "scarf that made people scream". Rachel Ray wore a scarf while doing a commercial for Dunkin' Doughnuts that some people claimed looked like a head scarf worn by the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Of course, Dunkin' Doughnuts pulled the commercial. After I heard about this I went and did some research of my own. I saw some shots of the commercial and, in my opinion, that scarf looks like a scarf. Yes, if you are constantly worried about another 9/11 attack, I could see where you might, with a big stretch of the imagination; decide that the scarf is, in some way, connected to Arafat, but any rational human being could see that her scarf is just a scarf, nothing more.

So, in conclusion, the article “We’re Now America the Terrified” discusses how paranoid Americans have become due to the terrorists attacks. I agree with Leonard Pitts and believe his article is worth checking out.