nmah109.xml

nmah109.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-02

During the month of August 2001, I had been visiting colleges in Philadelphia, PA. On the drive down, I purposely made my parents pass through New York so I could view the skyline. Something about the size, the majesty, and the magnificence makes my heart jump. New York was, is, and always will be my most favorite place in the world.
On that Tuesday morning, school went on as usual. Classes started at 8:30, same faces, same joy, beautiful weather. Between my first and second classes, 9:25-9:30, my best friend's boyfriend came to our lockers as usual and he said, "Did you guys hear about the planes crashing in New York?" We of course said no. He is a jokester by nature and I thought that this one was over the top. When I entered my second period class, anatomy, my favorite class, a couple of the girls were crying. We all sat down in our seats and the teacher asked why some of the people in the room were crying. On girl, a friend of mine from middle school told the rest of the class wht she had seen on television. Two planes had crashed into the Twin Towers. The same towers I love, and had just seen days before with my own eyes. My heart sank to the bottom of my feet. I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I wanted to go to the window and stare into the endless sky in hope that God would tell me it was all not true. Soon after that, the administrators of the school were walking around the school entering each class and asking teachers and students to remain calm and they would receive more notice in a minute. The principal came over the loudspeaker, obvious that he was choking on his own shock. He said, we were to go on with the da and we were going to remain in school for the rest of the day. He said, we were safer and more organized at the school. I felt like i was in a movie. I thought to myself, "This doesn't happen. This is scene from a war movie, a fiction." My next period was a free, i could go wherever in the school. I went to the library, hooked up the TV, and turned on channel 10, NBC. Tom Brokaw appeared on the screen and then the screen cut to the two smoking towers. My knees buckled and i fell in front of the TV. At that moment, the first tower came crashing to the ground. A tear rolled down my face, then another, and another. Never one second was my face away from that screen. A group of people saw I had the television on and rushed in. There were gasps and oh-my-god's. As we all know now, the second tower came crashing down about 15-20 minutes later. We were just bombarded with horror. We learned next that another plane ha crashed in Washington. My first thought was of the White House. I heard a few minutes after that, that the Pentagon had been hit and that another plane had crashed in rural west Pennsylvania.
People talk about the 5th of June, 1968, the day RFK was assassinated as the day America died. I say no.
We can now say without a doubt that September 11th, 2001 was the day the United States had its knees knocked out, its ego trampled, and its heart blown to pieces. However, not even the death of 3000 of our fellow Americans, not the destruction of two of the tallest buildings in the world, not the defamation of the greatest city in the world could possibly harm the core natural law of our nation, .... Freedom.

The major thing that should be remembered about September 11th is heroism. Hundreds of fireman, police officers, port authority personel were killed. They willingly went into the crippled buildings, knowing that people needed help and the buildings may fall. The massive amounts that were saved felt blessed to have the NYPD and FDNY, and those still inside had a little hope that they were coming. That's what it is all about, a simple series of events. Chaos, Danger, Tragedy, Heroism, Perseverence.

I have always had a flag flying.