story6946.xml

story6946.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

Shock, disbelief, surreal. It couldn't possibly happen. Reality abruptly woke us from our naive sense of security and threw us into the harsh reality of vulnerability. My 11 year old son and I watched the news that night of videos of the attack. Over and over and over again as though we were trying to MAKE our brains comprehend the unimaginable. My son was too scared to go to school the next day. Tears of panic and fear convinced me to let him stay home with his grandparents. But I had to go to work; not because of a fear of reprisal, but because I was so angry that someone was trying to destroy my freedom, my way of life, my country. I wasn't going to allow that to happen. I needed to show my son that though I too was afraid, I will stand up and march on. I needed to show that to my students as well. I teach high school students who are new immigrants to this country. I teach them English. They needed to understand that the reasons their families came to this country were at risk. They,too, are a member of this great country. They, too, needed to stand united with all Americans of every nationality and do whatever they could--write letters, send gloves to the crews cleaning Ground Zero, pray. My American-born students, as well as my son, needed to wake up to the fact that their freedom is NOT free. Tens of thousands of men and women have died so that they may have the freedoms they enjoy today. Our history as a nation is founded on the basic principles of human rights, of government for, by and of the people. If they turned their cheek on this tragedy,they are at risk of losing the most basic freedoms. They understood this message. Even today, one year after the tragedy, I still remind my students what it means to be in America. When my students stand to say the pledge every morning, they now have a deeper comprehension of the frailty of their freedom and what the red stripes in our flag represent. They shall never forget.