Over and over on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we were told that it was a day that forever changed America. And that’s absolutely true, especially if you’re part of half the country that lives in a city. But what if you don’t live in L.A. or New York or Washington D.C. or even Tulsa, Oklahoma? What if you live in a state not likely to receive a terrorist attack (for some reason terrorists prefer blue states even though it seems their real beef is with red state types) and you live in a small town within that state, making it doubly unlikely?
The changes in Alabama are a lot more subtle but they’re still there. For one thing, bombing ANY part of the U.S. is like someone starting a fight with a relative you don’t like. You might not be fond of them but they’re still YOUR family, just like New York is still part of America and people will die to protect it. It’s no secret that the majority of U.S. military troops come from the South, and there are plenty of soldiers from Alabama that have died in the wars since 9/11.
I guess you could say the biggest physical change has been the number of Alabama families missing sons from the post-9/11 wars that seem endless. But the mental changes are there every time a mother gets a little nervous when their child gets on an airplane and also there when a rural “survivalist” stocks up on guns and gold believing Obama is a Muslim sleeper agent anti-christ. It’s harder to put your finger on it, but there is a definite uneasiness in Alabama (although the paranoia manifests as a reaction to Obama’s election more than dealing with American vulnerability more straightforward) just as the country at large experiences it, a feeling that we’re in the middle of a transitional period but unsure if we’re transitioning into something positive or negative.