nmah6236.xml

nmah6236.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-12

I was in pe and my principal was giving us a lecture on the code of behavior (how the school policies were set up and school was supposed to run) when a teacher came in he room and told Mr. Healey that he needed to go to the office immediately. just moments later he was on the announcements telling us that a plane had crashed into the pentagon and the WTC. i couldn't believe what i was hearing it seemed like a made up story. then students started going to the office and guidence in tears b/c they did not knowif their parents were alive. that's when it hit me that this wasn't just a sick joke but that something terrible had happened. luckily my parents were not there and althiough my dad was close by, working in arlington he had felt no of the blow. later that night he told me that he had heard the crash. we watched on tv the news reports. there were reports on every channel. there was nothing else to watch on tv. finally after watching the news broadcasts for hour after hour, i had to turn the tv off. it was too terrible to even begin to imagine. someone had hurt our whole country in a split second.

i have always been a very patriotic person but after the attack i am much more spirited. i am always in my red white and blue. i felt much more American when i realized that the attack on the pentagon and the WTC was like a personal attack on me! i feel very proud to be an American. after the attack all of the people in the US joined together. we unified and told the enemy that we were not going to just sit back and take it. all of America realized what it meant to be an AMerican and we felt proud and hurt and we created a new sense of pride in ourselves. a feeling that we should stand together. bumper stickers came out with the slogan "these colors don't run" and they were put up everywhere! other bumper stickers said "we'll never forget". a month aftetr the attack i went to NYC and my mom and i went by the NYFD. we shook their hands and told them that we were proud of them and what they were doing. that we believed in them and supported them. it was very touching to see grown men start to cry. they knew just lik all of America that we are a huge family and no one messes with us!

i think everything should be remembered about 9-11. but more importantly i think that people should remember how quickly we came together and unified our forces. there was no longer feelings of superiority between states, we are one! i think that this fact that we were able to unify ourselves shows how important our home is to us.. our family...our AMERICA!

i've always respected the flag but i think that 9-11 gave it a new meaning.. a new importance after the attacks. the same night of the attack i put an Amreican flag on my car. my dad had one on his and my mom on hers. we wore red white and blue all week. the flag represents freedom and it always has, but i think now more than ever i see the flag as a sign of unity. it's similar to our own "American gang". no one messes with us and we all proudly wear our colors. America is closer together now more than ever.