Like the majority of America, I was glued to the television all day Tuesday watching the replays of terror and destruction. Still, nearly 48 hours later, my stomach drops to my toes when I hear the cries and see the planes rip into the Manhattan skyline.

It’s almost painful to wonder if this could have been prevented just last year, or even eight years ago.

On Feb. 26, 1993, six died and nearly 1,000 were wounded when bombs exploded underneath the World Trade Center.

In response, a test program, mandated by the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, was implemented at several colleges and universities in 1998 to track the academic behavior of international students. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Eyad Ismoil had entered the United States on a student visa, dropped out and remained illegally.

Yousef and Ismoil were captured and convicted to 240 years in prison.

In about a month, America will mourn the one year anniversary of the Oct. 12 losses from the USS Cole tragedy. The navy ship pulled into the Yemeni port of Aden to refuel when a small harbor skiff laden with explosives stopped alongside it and detonated. Seventeen American sailors were killed and 39 were injured.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a 1997 memo from the Yemen Port Authority told the U.S. Navy to patrol waters around U.S. ships to protect them from small boats. There were no such patrols when the Cole visited Aden.

Yemen has been known as a base for terrorist attacks, so why did we refuel there? Consequently, Yemen and the U.S. had been trying to foster a bond over the previous 10 years. Our presence was a political pony show of the trust former president Bill Clinton had in an unstable nation.

And now, we hear of reports that Osama bin Laden had been threatening unprecedented action against the United States.

Each of the four crashed jetliners are believed to have been flown by hijackers trained as pilots in the United States, Attorney General John Ashcroft said.

Two of them allegedly received their pilot’s licenses in July.

Is America turning a blind eye to her past? One would believe that we would take warnings much more seriously when lives are at stake. We are nurturing our own demise.

It would be wrong to succumb to mass hysteria and paranoia. That would be like shooting ourselves in the foot to ease a headache.

It would be wrong of Americans to be afraid of each other on the streets or to fear the man handing them their mail.

Would we allow ourselves to regress to the age of McCarthyism in which we imprisoned men, women and children because of their country of origin?

After Tuesday’s tragic events, I don’t think Americans are capable of letting that happen again.

I watched the ‘Blair Witch’ -esque footage taken by a doctor on the street who crouched behind a car as a massive cloud of debris and ash overcame him.

“I hope I live. I hope I live,” he said.

After the wave subsided, he immediately went out in search of people he could help.

The American men and women on the streets were willing to put their own lives in jeopardy to repair the wounds of the country, but we are left with the anger and frustration of feeling let down by the men and women we trust on Capitol Hill.

A parent of a child that gets hurt on the playground would take every precautionary measure imaginable to keep their loved ones from further harm.

So, I beg and I pray for our leaders to open up their eyes and pay attention to pain of a nation and the cries of their children.