It started out with the feeling of safety and security at home. Nothing could touch us here because we felt beyond the outside world. We had faith that unseen forces kept us safe while we slept. The sun came up in the morning and glistened across blades of grass in their perfect asymmetry one morning to the next over and over.

But, one day images of a familiar building are on the television. News reporters can’t talk fast enough to keep up with the mounting feeling of dread as we realize it’s one of the buildings of the world trade center, and it’s been hit by a plane. Out of nowhere plane number two hits the other building and it becomes clear that something is terribly wrong and thousands of lives are at risk. A cold dagger - like feeling runs from our side to our collective core.

We watch the buildings tumble to the ground so easily and wonder about those lives - American lives - and hope our own loved ones are safe. We want to do something, and want to help that’s the first feeling. But, days later the feeling we aren’t safe anymore sneaks up on us. We become concerned with what is being done to thwart the new danger. We want to feel safe again, but the blades of grass just don’t line up the same way anymore.

At work we began to notice strangers in a way we hadn’t in the past. In the car going home unfamiliar faces no longer blurred like one big stew and with the recent ingredient all we could do was try not to stare. We were nervous. We hated to think about it hated to admit it could have happened, but we were scared.

Why the violence? Why the terror? Why on U.S. soil? The new face of evil was non- American and Americans held up our flags as badges of honor and a reminder never to forget. We were told the enemy was unknown, but were given an approximate region of the world and an approximate description. So that’s where we looked and that’s where we focused our angers, fears and lust for vengeance. Some of the most liberal Americans went along, just incase the reports were correct.

Only the most courageous raised doubts often to their own peril because we were at war with a vague group of people who apparently could strike at any moment. The message read; “that’s the way it is get used to it, follow in obedience, and do not question.” So we dove blindly head first into the deep end.

Now we’re attempting to pull ourselves out of that murky, dark pool of water we so willingly dove into. Some people are sitting around the pool toweling off and looking around at those still caught in the middle, those swimming to the edge and those still pulling themselves out. Away at a distance we are grateful for the common sense we’ve come into contact with again, but we’re tired and worn down. We pick up our heads and look to the pulpit where we hope to find a leader to be and no one’s there.

There’s a cold wind blowing across the pool and the executive box holds no faces to comfort us. The glass glitters, but it’s been unoccupied for a while. There’s just a slick oily mess on our hands and a bitter taste in our mouths. Americans are lying on the side of the pool now wounded, some are sickened and some never made it out. We’re realizing our wallets have been gone through and we’ve been burned. We bought the story. Now the more we read the more the words sour.

For me it’s like seventh grade science class. There I am a young hip hop neophyte sitting in class wearing sneakers, a track suit and a baseball cap all with the Adidas logo printed prominently on them. The science teacher comes by to check on the progress of my lab partner and myself. After helping us out he comments on my clothes by asking why I’m wearing so much by the same brand. I reply by saying I liked the brand. He responds, “Oh, I thought they were paying you to wear those.”

Al Quaeda only succeeds when we behave in a manner portraying the evidence of those who are terrified. They don’t have the ability to invade and overcome us so they must create the specter of something we can’t define which could strike at any moment and convince us to keep thinking about it. They must leave an impression we won’t forget. It must be taken as truth. It should become part of our daily lives which we carry around with us and refer to often. Only then can they enlist our voices, our emotions, our thoughts, our time and our money in helping them spread the word of their movement and ideology.

There have been terror attacks separate from Al Quaeda here and probably will be others whether related to that group, other religious fanatics, political dissidents, cowards hiding behind patriotism or some other body of nuts. This time we got tricked into a phony war by people who took advantage of us while we were distracted. They led us into that pool, left us to find our own way out and took our money for a war we still don’t understand.

We need to stop Al Quaeda from attacking us again no doubt about that, but we should not lose our sanity and economy in the process. Somewhere in the world right now there is an angry young man with a picture of Osama Bin Laden which he found online, downloaded and put on his t-shirt with the words “God Bless Osama” printed underneath the image. In another part of the world there is another angry young man that downloaded the very same image and had it printed on his t-shirt only the words read “F*@# Osama Bin Laden.” What neither of those two men realized is that they were both equally duped.

The goal of an organization like Al Quaeda is to spread their word, image of power, enlist followers and enemies thus creating a movement and it’s time we stop getting duped and start thinking before act. Let’s jump into the pool where it makes sense in the future not because of a marketing strategy or government mismanagement. What I didn’t get in the seventh grade was that it was me who was paying them.

It’s time for us to stop investing in a terrorist organization’s ambitions. It’s time for us to get more for our money than what our government has been giving us for a return. If we weren’t fully educated before Iraq we are now and our leaders need to raise their ambitions to meet our new standards and enlist in our vision of America. An America that is much larger than a marketing strategy.

To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.