story8506.xml

story8506.xml

born-digital

story

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no

2002-10-18

Septemeber 11th, was a day of great tradgedy for the people of the United States. It was a bright day but the skies soon turned into two huge heaps of smoke as three planes hit both of the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. These were acts of terrorism; not something that children in the U.S. are used to or understand very well. September 11th was a learning expirence to children as well as adults.
The September 11th, attacks really "hit close to home" for me. Little did I know, my father was flying to New York that day for business. He was flying out of Logan Airport around 8:00 AM. The same time that the two flights that were to hit the North and South towers of the World Trade Center took off. Once my mother heard the news that two flights from Logan Airport hit the World Trade Centers, she was terrified. She thought that my father was on one of those flights. She figured that those planes were actually going to New York City. Meanwhile, my dad, who thankfully was on a different flight, was just flying over the city when tragedy struck. He told me later that the captain came of the plane's speaker and said "Look to your right, you are witnessing today's news." My dad's flight was the last one to land in LaGuardia Airport before it shut down. He tried calling my mom on his cell phone, but had no luck since the cell phone towers were on top of the World Trade Centers. He then took a cab and headed out of the city as fast as he could. My father soon got in touch with his boss, who was also in New York City, and met in the outskirts of town and headed for home in a rented car. Sam, my dad's boss, called the office and told them to call their families and say that they were both safe, together and were coming home. My mom was realived when she got this phone call. I was told at school what happened that morning, but was shocked when I heard my dad's story of what went on that day.
Since September 11th, my life has changed in many ways. Terrorism wasn't something that I, as well as many other children were familiar with before these attacks. Now I am knowledgable about this subject. Since my family goes on vacation at least once a year, I am more cautious about the environment that I am in, Also, I have learned not to take things for granted. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so I learn to not sweat the small stuff, and I get along with people easily. Finally, I've been more patriotic since 9/11. I've done this because, like the lyrics say in "Proud To Be An American" by Lee Greenwood, "There is pride in every American heart and they can't take that away". I've learned that people may not like what we do, or how we live, but they can't take away our American spirit.
I think there are many things to be remembered about the attacks that occured on September 11th. ONe thing to remember is all the lives of the innocent people that were taken on that tragic day. Another thing that we should remember is to analyze things very carefully. Now reporters are saying that there were small warnings that maybe an attack would occur, I also think that after the U.S. Cole bombing, security could have been "stepped up". Finally, I think that we can't let the terrorists "win" by cancelling trips and events just becuase we are afraid to fly. Our economy dropped since these attacks and have left many people jobless and hard for them to feed their families. Toegther we need to show our American spirit and help boost our economy back up. We must never forget about this terrivle day of great tragedy.