I woke up on Tuesday morning and turned on my TV to watch the Today show on NBC. It just so happened that the last channel I’d watched on Monday was CNN Headline News, and in my sleepy haze I heard someone say “. the World Trade Center has collapsed .”

And I wondered if I’d really been that busy, or if CNN had just been way too interested in Chandra Levy. Of course, within minutes I was fully awakened to the horror that had just befallen our country.

“September 11, 2001. A day which will live in infamy.” That echo of FDR’s statement may as well be the quote for the rest of human history. But then, it’s not only infamy – that was a day that saw America’s loss of innocence, forever the end of being naive.

Don’t get me wrong; I grew up in Nigeria, a Third World country which for most of my lifetime was in political, economic and social turmoil. So believe me when I say that I really didn’t have much innocence left. And of course whatever bits of that innocence were left are pretty much gone now.

For the first time, while no one knew if the attacks were over, I found myself questioning my safety in the United States. Considering that I spent my childhood in a place where we dreamed of living in the United States, that’s pretty significant.

A lot of lessons will certainly come out of this, albeit in such a horrendous manner. We will learn to let our goverment do what it must through intelligence and otherwise to ensure the security of our country. I’m generally liberal politically, but I’ve always believed that when necessary, we ought to be a little more supportive of such security efforts.

We will also learn just how closely the United States is tied to the world around it.

And we won’t just assume that isolation and a cowboy attitude will suffice to keep us from the terror that exists in much of the world. We are, to paraphrase President Bush, the brightest beacon of freedom, and will always be a target for enemies of freedom.

Now, our nation has suffered a deeper wound than anyone could possibly imagine. And the truth is that a lesser people may find themselves stunned into inactivity. But everywhere there are my fellow citizens talking about showing the creatures responsible just what we’re made of.

This is the resolve and the pride of the American people. I was born here, which makes me a U.S citizen, but I grew up elsewhere so my attachment to this country has taken time to form. And now, I have to say that I have taken this attack on our freedom very, very personally. I take personally too, the pride, the resolve and the strength of heart on display.

I’m sure we’ll see one of the well-documented “stages of grief” – anger – in a lot of minds in not too long a time.

Some of it may arouse feeling of prejudice in us.

But I trust that if we’ve learned anything from these recent events, it has to be that we cannot simply draw battle lines in the face of a threat. Our thinking must be deliberate, our actions patriotic.

Let’s show everyone what America is really about, what makes us so great. Talk your friends out of hoarding gasoline and other suppies, the shortages don’t exist. Don’t tolerate racially or religiously motivated slurs or other hostile action from the people around you towards others.

Do give blood and other donations where and when that is possible. These madmen would like to see us in chaos and disarray.

But I believe most Americans intend to prove them wrong. And I’ll tell you with all certainty, I intend to do just that.

Emeka Anyanwu is a senior in electrical engineering from Brooklyn, New York.