story5946.xml

story5946.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

It was early morning and I was getting my children ready to catch the bus for school. They were almost ready and I turned on the TV so they could watch a few minutes of their favorite cartoon. I remember looking over at the TV while brushing my youngest daughter's hair, and thinking "oh my, a plane went down somewhere." All I could see was a plume of black smoke rising into the air. I instinctively knew that it must be a really bad crash to cause that much black smoke. Then the cameras pulled back and went into focus, and a city came into view, and in the background you could see a Jet turning toward a high building. I stood in total shock as I watched it hit the building. I remember saying "Oh my God!" Then I saw the words at the bottom of the screen they read, "America under Attack." My children asked me what was happening, and I turned to them and with tears in my eyes I told them that the United States was being attacked, and that alot of people were on their way to heaven. I gathered up my composure and sent them out the door, only to call them back to me. I called the school to see if it was open and they said yes, so I drove my kids to school myself, still in a state of shock. I told them I would pick them up after school was out. I must have changed my mind 4 or 5 times that day as I watched the events unfold on TV. I finally picked them up.
In the meantime I had called all my family and friends, I needed to hear their voices, to know that they were okay. The tears flowed freely for me that day. At first I was shocked, then stunned, and then angry. By the time I picked up my children I knew we were going to war, that we would seek Justice for the terrible injustice that we had suffered. On the way home from school I did my best to answer my children's questions honestly, while wondering what it would mean to life here in the USA as we had known it. I was outraged that we had educated these terrorists here, so they could turn that knowledge against us. I was concerned and wondering what had happened to our President, was he alive or dead. My family all rallied around the children and each other. That night I cried while I did the nightly prayers with my children and I added a special prayer for our President, the World Leaders, the families who had lost someone, the Rescue Workers, and our Military.
It was the first time I had ever watched the World stop, and it was the first time I'd ever heard of all the planes being grounded at once. That night I was glad I could hear the military jets as they flew overhead here, I knew that they were watching out for us.