“Why did terrorists attack the United States on Sept. 11, 2001?”

This is a question many still ponder and some discussed their opinions on the matter Tuesday evening.

The presidential and congressional war-making powers took place in the Effingham Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

The room was packed with students and community members sharing perspectives on war and power and the panel consisted of one moderator who would lead conversation, four student perspectives and the input of the entire audience.

Carly Guerriero, senior political science major and member of the Students for a Democratic Society organization attended the panel and became involved in the discussion.

Guerriero questioned the statement, made by panelist Carolyn Beck of the Political Science Association, that President George W. Bush said the terrorists attacked the United States because it is a free nation.

“It’s intellectually lazy and absolutely naive to think that,” Guerriero said. “How can we as intellectual individuals and students let Bush get away with saying that?”

Beck said many times U.S. citizens do sometimes overlook the justifiable reasons as to why the attacks took place.

Her point remained that the United States is the superpower of the world and is everything terrorists hate for having a strong military and the ability to get virtually anywhere at anytime.

“But I don’t think, necessarily, that Bush uses freedom as a reason for his own personal gain,” she said.

Beck said she personally believes the terrorists want to take freedom from the United States for a few reasons.

“(The terrorists) don’t like our freedoms, they don’t like the fact that we have these protections and by giving (our freedoms) away we would be giving them what they want,” Beck said. “So I have the belief that I’d rather sacrifice a little bit of temporary safety to ensure my essential liberties because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life without the liberties that I was born with.”

Karen Swenson, the panel moderator, said Congress told all universities and primary and secondary schools that receive federal money that they should recognize Constitution Day, which is why the panel was held this week.

“I think it’s beneficial for students to come to these discussions,” Swenson said. “And I could just tell from the quality of the (audience’s questions) that this was something people wanted to discuss, thinking about our Constitution. That’s something we don’t do that often.”