When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, I remember being in a zombie like state during that period. The difference during that period was that there was some sense of closure to the event. There was no fear of war and the whole nation watched the funeral on television. I will never forget the mournful sound of the drum beating as the black horse followed JFK's casket down Pennsylvania Avenue.

By Christmas everything seemed to be back to normal. In those days we didn't have CNN to bombard us 24 hours a day with bad news and reliving the scenes over and over again.

Sadly, the assassination of a president has not been an unusual event in America's history since three others were also assassinated before JFK. The country survived each one and so we had some precedent when JFK was assassinated. I felt extreme sadness at JFK's assassination. We all knew him. It was a personal lost to every American. The September 11 attacks seem different because there is no closure. We have no precedent for the murder of 6300 innocent civilians in one attack.

The terrorists attack on September 11 has left me not so much with sadness as it has with anger and uncertainty and bewilderment. The majority of us did not personally know someone who was killed in the terrorist attacks. We can only identify with the grief and the sadness to the extent that it reminds us of when we lost someone close to us. Our minds are unable to comprehend the grief of 6300 people being murdered. It is almost an abstraction. Coping with this type of tragedy is unprecedented.

In times like this it is best to collectively express our sorrow and our fears. That is why people went to church to pray and fund raisers were held for the disaster relief. The citizens of Minonk did the right thing when residents gathered at Veterans Park last Thursday night to honor the victims of the attack and to donate money to the disaster relief fund. I know it helped me. Tears swelled in my eyes as the Village Aires sang patriotic songs. It reminded me of why I was proud to be an American. It seems to me that a communal ceremony like this helps one to feel the sorrow and pain that is bottled up inside.

Already security checks are being conducted at college football games at ISU and the University of Illinois. We have to be careful not to overdue the security checks at the risk of prolonging the paranoia and making every event a traumatic experience. It is impossible to totally prevent future terrorist attacks. All we can do is make sure that the most vulnerable things be secure such as air travel and high profile events.

The world has been and always will be a dangerous place. Actually, we are living in probably the most peaceful time in history. The terrorist attacks was a reality check that we will never be safe from madmen. History is replete with madmen - from Genghis Khan up through Adolph Hitler. We must accept the fact that we will be fighting a new and different war for the rest of our lives. We all knew that the terrorists would attack. The uncertainty of when they would attack has been replaced with the certainty that we are finally going to do something about it. That fact makes me feel better already.

Compliments to Heritage Manor