story2239.xml

story2239.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was in American Lit class 2nd hour and we all had our seats in a circle to discuss and debate some book. I think that the book was the Scarlet Letter. Somebody had just gotten done talking talking about something when all of a sudden, a student assistant from the office, walked up to came to the door and anounced that "The World Trade Center and the Pentagon had just been bombed." A slight feeling of uncertanity crept though our class as we all thought it was probably a car bomb or some terrorist threw a generade at those buildings. We quickly turned on the T.V. and tried to find coverage of the events, it wasn't hard because it was everywhere. The first thing that I saw was the two buildings that outlined New York, with huge holes and smoke flowing out of them. A sense of disbelief went over me as I thought How could this happen and why now? My question of how was answered how how it happened when they showed a replay of the second 747 crashing into the the second tower. Some kid in class said that it was a small private jet and that there was nothing to fear. Quickly after that though, the reporter stated that a Boeing 747 crashed into the towers and the Pentagon. The next scene that they showed was of a smaller building that seemed to be crumbled up and on fire. I quickly realized after that this was the Pentagon, the United state's 'War building.' Class came to a halt as we all just sat there and watched the T.V. The bell rang and we got released to our next classes. On the way to Chemistry, I heard rumors being spread like wildfire. People left and right were either making up stories or telling jokes about what happened. For example i overheard some girl say that she just saw on the T.V. that the Pre-school that Bush went to got bombed. That all sickened me that fellow students could be so cold and heartless as to poke fun and laugh at it. But out of all the chuckles, smiles and things i heard, a statment stuck out to me as the worst. A kid that i knew, with one of the widest grins I had ever seen, walked up to me and said "Oh my god, America's getting it's ass kicked!"
On that day that changed America, there were two things that stuck out the most in my mind. The first was the terrorist attacks. The second was the lack of humanity that fellow people showed for the incidents. It wasn't everybody in school but it was enough to make me lose faith in the integrity of our school.
It's weird looking back at it all right now today, September 11th, 2002. I think about all of the worries that I had about papers that I had to turn in and tests that I had to take, they seem so insignificant compaired to those who were in New York and Washington D.C. that day.