September 11 Memories. A Winner Essay that My Son Wrote for an Essay Contest "Laws of Life".

When my son was in 8^th grade of Middle school he wrote an essay for a school contest. We just moved to US several months earlier (in November of 2001). Reuven was still “a new kid who came from overseas”, his English was yet not the best, but when a “Laws of Life” essay contest sponsored by the school district and local Kiwanis Club was announced, he participated in it with all other eighth-graders.

Teachers helped students think through the rules and ideas of an essay contest. Teachers did a preliminary judging of the essays, recommending 30 finalists.

Then the finalists were judged and ranked by the members of the local Kiwanis Club. My son’s essay won the 4^th place in a rank in top five essays.

I am posting his essay here. Through the eyes of fourteen-year-old and the story of his experience we can see how desire for peace is important nowadays more than ever. Further you will read my son's essay.

Webster dictionary of English language defines the word “terrorism” as: “mass-organized ruthlessness”.

Until the age of 14 I lived in Israel, a very beautiful land, but very complicated as a country. All the woods and plants in Israel were planted by people’s hands on a ground which was mostly bogs and sand. After the declaration of independence of Israel as a Jewish country in 1948, Arab terrorist organizations started terrorist acts against peaceful people in the Jewish land.

We have very good friends living in New York. They always wanted to visit us in Israel, but year after year, they did not come. They used to say that they were afraid to travel to Israel, because of the situation in our country. When the news companies all over the world were showing terrorist acts in Israel, one could think that there was nothing else in the country. We tried to explain to our friends that we lived a normal life. Although these terrorist acts are awful, they don’t stop us from living.

It seemed like it worked. At the end of August 2001, our friends finally came to visit us. We were very glad to see them, and we did our best to show them Israel as much as we could. We travelled to the north and we told our friends that many years ago Arab terrorist exploded a bus with Israeli school children who went on an excursion. Nevertheless, each year school excursions go all over Israel, because we don’t want to stop travelling just because there are people who don’t want to live in peace.

When we travelled to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem we showed our friends places where Arab kamikazes exploded themselves, killing peaceful people. But it didn’t stop us from living a normal life, going out, traveling, dining out and the like…

Our friends loved Israel and Israeli people very much. They saw that we lived a normal life, as they did. They noticed that, in Israel, people are more careful and that the security in Israel is very high. In every place security guards are checking your bags and sometimes even checking your documents. Israeli people are used to it and understand the reason.

Our friends’ vacation was great and after several days they were going back home to New York, but….. They had to stay with us longer because an awful thing happened in New York and their flight was postponed.

It was September 11, 2001….. No one ever expected that terrorists would dare to do this in the heart of New York City.

And then I understood that no one can ever be safe in any place in the world until All People want to live in Peace. I know that peace is the most important thing for all of us, no matter where we live. All people and all countries should be together in their wish to stop those who don’t want to live in peace.

The World should be Peaceful.

This is my law of life.

My son is an adult now, but his middle school essay is as topical and vital as it was a decade ago. The World doesn’t seem to learn its lesson….