When I was growing up, my grandmother would always call my mom and dad on December 7 to remind all of us of Pearl Harbor day. I never really understood why she always wanted us to remember that day....It was a horrible day when Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese and the United States entered into World War II. Why would we need to remember that??
Fifteen years ago this morning, I was 25 years old in my third year of teaching in a small town right outside of New Orleans, LA with my awesome co- teacher, Carey. I was getting ready for my kindergarteners to come through the door, and I was busily putting together some information for a parent night we were going to have that evening. It was a typical Tuesday morning. I don’t remember what specials class my students went to right away that morning after they arrived, but I remember another specials teacher walking down the hall towards me, and he asked me if I had heard about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York, City. Of course I hadn’t...smart phones weren’t even around yet, and I was still getting used to the idea that my principal told us we HAD to check our email at least once a day. Getting on the internet at the touch of a button wasn’t in my world yet. I remember him telling me and thinking it must have been an accident and that for some unfortunate reason a plane much have crashed...a fluke...a tragic accident.
My students came back from their specials class and we started our day. I remember at some point, my neighbor teacher, Pat, came to my classroom and said, “Did you hear about another plane crashing into the World Trade Center?” I looked at her, and said I had already heard about it and she said ,” No...ANOTHER plane crashed.” I remember not fully comprehending what was going on. How tragic, I remember thinking ...those poor people in New York City...but still not comprehending the horror of what was unfolding while I was tucked safely away inside my little classroom in Louisiana.
During lunch time, I had to go to my principal’s office and get something signed off by him ( I can’t remember what it was), but I do remember when I walked into his office he had one of those old AV carts with a huge T.V. and VCR on it, and I heard the words Pentagon and something about Pennsylvania. He was staring at the television and barely noticed I walked into his office. At that point, I think I started to realize that something was very very wrong.
There were no announcements made at our school during that day except at the end of the day, the principal said in the aftermath of what had happened that day that the parent information night was going to be canceled. The teachers on my team and I packed up for the day and we all went home. I remember turning on the TV when I got to my house and what I saw looked like something I would imagine straight out of hell. People running for their lives, covered in dirt and dust, clutching brief cases. Some had no shoes, some had broken glasses. There was an ear piercing shrill beeping sound over and over which I later learned was an alarm on the firefighters which would go off after no movement was detected after a certain period of time. People were running across a bridge away from the towers which had collapsed to the ground as if they had never existed at all. I really and truly could not believe what I was watching.
In the days and weeks to follow September 11, 2001, there was constant news footage and the term “Ground Zero” was coined to describe the place where the Twin Towers once stood. The pictures of where the Pentagon had been hit and the scar in that field in Pennsylvania where the fourth plane had crashed saving perhaps 100’s or 1000’s of more people from being killed through the bravery of the people on that plane were shown over and over. I remember Rudy Guiliani asking for family members of people missing from the attack to bring in tooth brushes and hair brushes which would provide DNA to match up to the remains of people found in the debris of the towers. I remember thinking that I had only heard about DNA evidence in movies. I remember every time I watched the news there were more bagpipes being played for police officers and firefighters who died trying to save people in the rubble. I remember hearing on the television the ominous crashes onto the roof one after another of people who were crashing to their deaths from the towers above...
That day, I understood why my grandmother would always remind us when December 7 would come around. That was the day that changed her world when she was 21 in 1941. It made her open her eyes and see that there were truly horrors in this world that we could not turn away from. I never truly understood what that meant to her until I experienced the horror of September 11. This day is a day of great sadness for the U.S. We should never forget about the innocent people and first responders who were killed that day. We cannot forget that we have troops overseas fighting for our rights and freedoms that too many of us (including myself) take for granted each and every day.
I know it was fifteen years ago, and my kindergartners from that class are now 20 and 21 years old. I am pretty sure they don’t remember a time when you did not have to remove your shoes and get full body scans before being able to go to an airplane gate. They probably would never remember a time when you could actually walk with your loved one to the gate and wave to them as they were actually walking down the jetway to get on the plane. I am pretty sure they don’t remember a time when they did not hear the words Afghanistan and Iraq mentioned in the U.S. news. They probably don’t remember a time when the daily news didn’t have the word “terror’ in it.
As an expat living away from the U.S., today my heart is with the families who lost loved ones that day as well and with all of the American people. That day changed things for everyone alive at that time and for future generations to come. It changed how my own children would grow up and things they would have to go through and experience. I have let my children watch the videos of the planes crashing into the towers that day. We have talked about the people who have died, and they have been to the 9/11 Memorial to see the names of the people who died that day. I think it is important for people and especially children to see how evil can come into the world, and also, more importantly, how we can unite to fight against it. I never fully understood the impact of December 7, 1941 because I don’t think the images were ever so clear to me about what happened. Until September 11, 2001, I think I was living in a world of innocence. I want my own children to know why we need to remember something so awful. It is the only way we will never forget.
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| Guy and the kids looking at the names of the people who died on 9/11/01 at the 9/11 Memorial in NYC |
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Freedom Tower in the background just over the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC...Doesn’t Elizabeth look so excited?:) |
