The United States was brought to a standstill after the terrorist attacks, which have forced us to look inward for the support and resolve to move on.

The word “tragedy” is often used in the wrong context. Princess Diana?s death was called “tragic,” but it really was just one of those unfortunate things that happen to people on a daily basis. The decimation of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is tragic. It is a result of the United States? hubris and indolence.A tragedy is something that comes out of a flawed personality trait, and the United States is a flawed character of Shakespearean proportions.

While most countries deal with death and destruction on a daily basis, we are a country more concerned about which type of car we drive or what words our Vacationer-in-Chief, George W. Bush is stumbling over. We may be a nation with roots in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, but it seems we have forgotten what it is like to fight for what we believe in.

The missteps of Vietnam have all but been erased by the video game that was the Gulf War. We could not comprehend why the North Vietnamese would strap bombs to themselves and their children. We are equally at a loss to understand why someone would train for what appears to be years, just to crash a plane and die as a soldier in a religious war.

Americans are enraged and we want to blow something up, but unlike World War II, there is really no clear-cut enemy. What would be served by turning Afghanistan into a parking lot? It would only result in thousands of innocent Afghanis being killed, while Osama bin Laden and the leaders harboring him remain free.To me, the real tragedy is the fact that in a week or two, everything will be back to normal. The United States is the poster child for dysfunctional families, and this sad period in American history will merely be swept under the rug like the death of a beloved family member. It is much easier to forget than to confront the pain head on.

I wonder how long this current news cycle will last. What will be the next big story? When will the corporate machine start turning its wheels again, promoting the television season or, for that matter, start running commercials again?

In the midst of this awful event, Congressman Gary Condit must be the luckiest one of us all. But the fact that it took something horrible like this to get him off the front pages of newspapers and television news, must force us to look in the mirror and take a long, hard look at ourselves.