nmah198.xml

nmah198.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I was at work at my office in Huntsville, AL when I received the phone call from one of our truck drivers. I usually came in a half and hour before everyone else and hadn't turned on the radio in the office so I was clueless as to what had happened. I couldn't believe it. My first reaction was "yeah, right." I turned on the radio and in the meantime several more of my co-workers arrived. We listened to the unfolding events as broadcast by Peter Jennings. As it became apparent that this was no accident, we called our boss who had not yet left her home and she agreed to bring a television set with her. The rest of the day was one of utter disbelief and confusion. I believe we all went from dumbfounded to angry to hurt to unbelieveable grief and confusion. I couldn't wait to get home to my husband and our houseguest. The telephone rang constantly with family and friends making sure we knew of the latest. Many also wanted to share our common fear of a local attack. Living in the Huntsville area, we shared the fear of an attack on Redstone Arsenal/Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA) and also on Brown's Ferry Nuclear Power Plant. Many of us quietly dismissed these fears simply because our already frought minds could not handle the notion and would have been in overload. Not wanting to clog up the phone system even more, I sent an E-Mail to a friend of mine inquiring about a mutual friend who lives in Manhattan. I had prayed that he was out of town or had gotten to work early as his office is across the river in New Jersey. Fortunately for us, he was out of town on vacation with his family who was visiting from Germany. I also received several phone calls from friends overseas expressing their disbelief. Many also expressed their concern as to whether or not President Bush (whom some refered to as "your cowboy president") would decide to attack. It's still not clear to me why, but many expressed hope that we would not attack. Perhaps it was fear that a monstrous beast would be unleashed, perhaps it was true fear of another world war. I do not know. Myself, I was torn as well. Part of me wanted revenge, wanted to blow Afghanistan off the map. Then the humane side of me worried about the innocent people in this poor unfortunate country. What would happen to them? Clearly, however, I could not come up with, and still cannot, an alternative solution. It was time to put my faith in those elected officials whose terrible duty it was to decide the fate of so many. I still do not envy the terrible weight they must feel trying to protect the people of this country. To this day, I still cannot believe these events transpired and cannot completely come to terms with the idea that further attacks are not that unlikely. May God bless us all.

I feel like I've lost some of my innocence. I'm not nearly as trusting as I once was, which perhaps isn't a bad thing. For me, however, it's not necessarily been a negative change. I grew up in a major city so I instinctively "watched my back". I am also very naieve, however and this has changed some of that. I also have a greater respect for our elected officials and realize again just how important it is to exercise our right to vote - to ensure that the people we feel can do the best job in any circumstance are the ones taking care of our best interests. Fortunately for me, this was not a concern for me at the time, but I have also learned that it is important for us to support those in office, to pray for them, whether or not they are the ones we chose or not. We all have access to our elected officials via telephone, mail and even E-Mail and we need to show our support or outrage - let our voices be heard. For far too long we've lived our hedonistic lives, caring only about ourselves and in the moment. It's time for that to change - to return to the "small town community" atmosphere where we all show genuine concern for each other. It not only helps our communities, it helps us recognize outsiders who might bring us harm (and by outsiders I don't necessarily mean people from foreign lands.)

The way we all banded together. How for at least one day we all felt related - like one giant family. Most importantly, we need to remember all the people who have put their lives on the line for our lives and for our freedom - from the brave firefighters and police officers in New York to the military members who have volunteered their lives so that we might continue to enjoy the freedom our forefathers so bravely fought for. We can never forget from whence we came - doing so would mean forfeiting all that many of us hold dear.

We did not fly a flag. Not due to lack of patriotism, rather due to lack of access to one - we have never owned one and they sold out of the stores so quickly. We took an alternate route to displaying our patriotism - tying red, white and blue ribbons to our car antennas. My feelings about the flag have not changed. Rather, I look at it and imagine how Mr. Francis Scott Key must have felt when he wrote the text to our beloved anthem. That means much more to me now.