nmah5325.xml

nmah5325.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-12-06

It was my first day of journalism school at King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I walked to my dorm room during my class break at 9:30 NY time, still oblivious to what had happened. I remember walking past a girl and a guy talking, the girl was moving both her hands as if they were planes, tracing their path. I heard "two planes" as I walked past but for some reason I didn't stop and ask.

I came back to class and a student announced what had happened. Incredibly, my journalism professor went right back to the lesson plan!

At 11:30 I finally walked out of class and went to the journalism lounge to watch CNN. I remember that everyone was excited and anxious to tell other people, even if everyone else knew what was going on. For some reason I had an urge to break the news to someone who hadn't heard yet.

I spent weeks on end at my computer watching footage of the attacks, finally I wasn't doing my homework so I forced myself to stop.

In all honesty my life has not changed all that much. In a historical perspective, and I know it sounds cold to say this, 3000 dead people is not very much. 1 000 000 people died in Rwanda in 1994 and most Americans don't even know it happened.

That for a few hours after the disaster, people were saying "maybe it's time we changed the imbalances in the world, maybe it's time we were more considerate to other nations, maybe it's time to re-think how we live our lives."

Then the message was quickly changed into a very vile, disgusting one. We were being patriotic by consuming more and stubborny sticking to our disastrous way of life.

No, because flying the American flag came to symbolize that you were pro-war, that you were backing the Bush administration, that you were towing the line. I found my own way to mourn.