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| Soccer Star Luke |
It was ten years ago, September 11, 2001, when I was teaching in my first grade classroom. It was a beautiful crisp, fall morning. A teacher and good friend, Donna D., (also currently known as Donna Lizard at my house) came to my classroom and went over to my computer and said to look at this. She pulled up CNN or some news channel, and it showed a picture of the Twin Towers on fire. She went over and did the same thing with my best friend and teaching partner, Susy. I can remember, "Oh my gosh!" "What does this mean?" There were so many thoughts swirling in my head.
A few minutes later, a mother of one of my students showed up at my door, just to check on her son. She spent the morning in my class. She nervously stapled and folded papers for the class. At lunch, I went to the film room (The only place there was a working TV.) and watched the news. It was unbelievable. It was difficult to take my eyes off the TV. I could not believe what was happening in front of my eyes. There were so many questions. At my recess break, I went to watch a few more minutes TV so that I could begin to understand what was going on. I just did not know or get it.
When I got home from school, I was already planning to go to a meeting at St. Mary's Church, so I went. Instead of the regular meeting, Father Myler held a prayer service for the people that had died, were unaccounted for, hurt while rescuing others, etc. After the meeting, I glued myself in front of the TV and watched and watched and watched. I wanted to make some sense of this, but it continued to get more confusing. Why would someone want to hurt us? What if they attacked again? Closer to home? I watched TV for weeks after searching for answers. Daddy and I spent three weeks in Europe over that summer. I knew there were numbers of people in Europe that did not like Americans and/or what our country stood for, as well as George Bush, but how could people hate Americans so much to intentionally kill women, men, small children, and babies? How????
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| Daddy coaching the Golden Dragons during a game |
I also thought a lot about our darling niece, Elsa, who was barely two years old. What kind of world was this going to be for her? Was her family OK? Was she OK? What about our nephew, Isaac, and their family? Were they OK? Would we all be OK?
I did notice that for the days following September 11, 2001, people in the community seemed nicer to each other. People seemed to be talking more, and there seemed to be people willing to help others everywhere. Donations were made, people gave clothes, money, food...firefighters, nurses, EMT's, policemen went to New York City to help with the search and rescue efforts.
For many days after, Daddy and I really talked about wanting to adopt one of the children that were left without parents. I even looked into joining the Air Force or reserves so that I could fight in the war. I really wanted to do something to help. It felt so bad to sit back and not do anything. I found comfort in helping to collect donations, giving blood, and things I could do right here at home. At that time, Daddy and I really wanted to have a family, and I knew that beginning a career in the Air Force would not work as well with those plans. I wish I could have helped directly with the war on terrorism, but looking back I would not change a thing about our family. Only three short years later, our family grew with the news of our first child!
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| Go Golden Dragons! Notice Joshua, the assistant coach, looking on while Daddy gives the before game pep talk! |
As I look back now, my biggest fear was that people would forget about these lost lives. I was afraid that people would forget what happened on this terrible day. The last nine years, I have worked diligently at remembering September 11th and the bravery and courage of so many American heroes - our military, firefighters, EMT's, policemen, nurses, and ordinary Americans with extraordinary bravery and courage. I have been honored to organize a small remembrance of those heroes on that day ~ ten years ago on September 11th. Please do not forget this day in history. Use it as a day to remember heroes, patriotism, and how proud you are to be Americans. Also, this date should remind you of your responsibility to educate yourself about our wonderful country, the United States of America - our economy, politics, history, and everything you possibly can. Not to mention, educate yourself about other countries and their economy, politics, history, etc. Going through school will teach you many things about all of this, but it is your responsibility as an adult to further your education and to keep current with what is happening in our country (foremost) as well as other countries.
I love you dearly.
Love,
Mama
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