nmah210.xml

nmah210.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I had just moved to Seattle and woke up that morning to the phone ringing. It was my mom and she told me that something terrible had happened - to turn on the television. By that time it was already 11am on the east coast and the news stations kept playing footage of the towers coming down, over and over. It took me a while to comprehend what had happened, it was as if my brain couldn't process something so horrible. I just sat on my bed and cried as I watched the exodus out of Manhattan, the people covered in dust and thought about my sister who lives there. I remember not being able to turn off the tv, I just wanted to hear one piece of good news- that things were going to be okay. I kept thinking about the people who got up that morning to go to work, kissed their kids goodbye, and never came back.

My everday life is much the same as before Sep. 11 except that my heart feels heavier in my chest. On that day I witnessed the very best and worst that humankind is capable of.

September 11 made me realize that no person or people can insulate themselves from the rest of the world. This planet we live on is so small, there can be no us versus them. We would do well to remember the words of John Donne...

No man is an island,
entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor
of they friends`s or of thine own were.
Any man`s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know
for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

I did not fly the American flag after September 11th, but it wasn't a conscious decision not to do so. More important to me than the actual flag itself is the ideology that it represents, namely freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom of choice, the freedom of an individual to live their life how they choose, and even the freedom to protest against the very government the flag represents.