story9467.xml
Title
story9467.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-09-04
911DA Story: Story
I left home that morning for a court appearance in Chattanooga, Tennessee. My pager went off before court and when I called my wife Alison told me that an airplane had crashed into one of the twin towers in New York. Remembering the old photos of the small plane that hit the Empire State Building several decades ago, I remember thinking what an unfortunate "accident".
When more events unfolded, Alison paged me again. She was in tears as she witnessed on live television the second airplane hitting the second tower. We had less than a year earlier returned from around the world with our two children Alina and Mac, who were born in Kazakstan. Their first entry to their new country was in New York. It was the place I had courted Alison and the place we had returned each year. Our hearts were broken.
We went through so many emotions in the following weeks. Fear and concern for our nation, and for our children, was overwhelming at times. We felt part of a national emotional depression that was hard to shake.
We feared for our children, who were born in an Islamic region of the world, and what the reaction would be toward all persons who were Muslim, including people we remembered in Kazakstan. Our friends who operate a restaurant nearby, who are Palistinian Christians, got death threats.
Suddenly, it seemed every car in Georgia and Tennessee was adorned with some form of an American flag. It was a good feeling at first, but later, paired with newly minted bumper stickers spouting hatred it started to seem a bit disturbing. In the Great American Tradition, there were plenty ready and willing to make a profit on the sudden surge in patriotism, which was also troubling. It caused us to do a lot of thinking and created a lot of discussion in our household.
Overall, I hope that the events surrounding September 11, 2001 will ultimately prove good for our nation. It brought us together yet forced us as a nation to think of the world outside our borders. God Bless those who lost their lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. At the same time, God save us as a nation from our own national reactions.
McCracken Poston, Ringgold, Georgia
When more events unfolded, Alison paged me again. She was in tears as she witnessed on live television the second airplane hitting the second tower. We had less than a year earlier returned from around the world with our two children Alina and Mac, who were born in Kazakstan. Their first entry to their new country was in New York. It was the place I had courted Alison and the place we had returned each year. Our hearts were broken.
We went through so many emotions in the following weeks. Fear and concern for our nation, and for our children, was overwhelming at times. We felt part of a national emotional depression that was hard to shake.
We feared for our children, who were born in an Islamic region of the world, and what the reaction would be toward all persons who were Muslim, including people we remembered in Kazakstan. Our friends who operate a restaurant nearby, who are Palistinian Christians, got death threats.
Suddenly, it seemed every car in Georgia and Tennessee was adorned with some form of an American flag. It was a good feeling at first, but later, paired with newly minted bumper stickers spouting hatred it started to seem a bit disturbing. In the Great American Tradition, there were plenty ready and willing to make a profit on the sudden surge in patriotism, which was also troubling. It caused us to do a lot of thinking and created a lot of discussion in our household.
Overall, I hope that the events surrounding September 11, 2001 will ultimately prove good for our nation. It brought us together yet forced us as a nation to think of the world outside our borders. God Bless those who lost their lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. At the same time, God save us as a nation from our own national reactions.
McCracken Poston, Ringgold, Georgia
Collection
Citation
“story9467.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 18, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/11932.