nmah471.xml

nmah471.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-28

I am a teacher in Westchester county, New York, about one hour north of the City. During 3rd period, I gathered with my colleagues for our team meeting when someone said that a tower had been hit by a small plane. Not having access to cable television, one teacher rounded up a very old radio and we crouched around it to listen to the events unfold. When we heard that the Pentagon had been hit also, my knees went weak and my heart sank. I went right to the phone to call my husband to tell him that the United States was under attack.

Within minutes, however, the bell rang and I had to go to class to teach my freshmen about the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal man. This day and the days to follow were very hard for us as we struggled to maintain "normalcy". We had no knowledge of the collapse until lunch time. Since many parents of our students work in NYC, we were very concerned. By the end of the day, two of my students had not gotten word from their parents, but one did get relieving news during class that her parents were accounted for. Afterwards, I advised my students not to watch television alone when they went home.

I wish I had taken my own advice. About 6:30pm, my cousin called to tell me that she had flown into JFK that morning for a convention and was coming over a bridge when she saw the planes crash. Frantic to get out of NYC, we decided that she was better off staying in her hotel for the evening.

I then spoke to my friend who lives on the upper west side who informed me that we had lost Tom McCann, the Fireman in the collapse. He was the only firefighter I knew and we had just celebrated his birthday in February at a Knicks' game.

It was a long, tragic day.

I cried for many months after September 11. I also thought a lot about my family when they had to go through the events of Pearl Harbor. My Grandfather, Wallace Kampney, was a Pearl Harbor Survivor and their motto is "Never Again". Did we not heed their warning and what would he think now? I was glad that he had died a year earlier so as not to witness this.

I think that we should remember that we are vulnerable.

No, I did not fly a flag. They were in short supply and when the local store did get them in, they wanted an extraordinary price for a flag made out of cheap material. I exercised my American right and said, "No, I will not support your profit from a tragedy."