nmah5510.xml

nmah5510.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-05-02

September 11 started with me completely unaware of the events in New York city. I'm a teacher and that morning I drove to school as normal, listening to Howard Stern on the radio. Of course, in the Midwest, Howard is on an hour delay, so there was no mention of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center by the time I got to school. As soon as I got into the building, a co-worker asked me if I had heard about the plane hitting the World Trade Center. She told me that they aren't sure if it was deliberate or not. About fifteen minutes later, the second plane hit the other tower. Our principal told all the teachers not to turn on the televisions or radios in classrooms, because he didn't want to frighten the students. (I teach in a middle school.) I will forever question that decision, because I feel that the students should have had the option of witnessing this historical event firsthand. Regardless, we kept the internet on our office computer so we could keep up with the day's disastrous events. The horror kept building as the third and fourth planes crashed and it sunk in that these were carefully orchestrated and deliberate attacks against all of us. After school several of us went to the nearest bar to watch the news stations, and that was the first time we actually saw the World Trade Center towers collapse. The silence in the bar from our table was downright uncomfortable. Nobody wanted to intrude on anyone else's thoughts at that time. All I kept thinking was, "Oh my God . . . all of those people still in those buildings!" Several of us had tears in our eyes. It was a stunningly devastating moment for all of us. These are memories I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

My life hasn't changed too much. There is much tighter security in our school building now. I don't fly often, so I haven't yet been exposed to the hightened security at the airports. I'm just afraid that in the aftermath of September 11, a lot of the basic civil rights that I enjoy are becoming eroded in the name of "National Security." That scares me almost as much as another terrorist attack.

The bravery of the people who ran to, not from, the World Trade Towers to try and help as many people as possible. That selfless act cost many of them their own lives. Those are the ones we should remember. Those are the images that should be glorified.

Yes, I put up a flag at home, and put a flag decal on both cars. I've never been a "rah-rah, red, white, and blue," type of person before September 11th. Before, I did the obligatory show of putting the flag up for national holidays like July 4th, Labor Day, Columbus Day, etc. I still put the flag up for those special holidays, but there is more significance in my mind as to what that flag means not only to myseld, but how it is viewed by others around the world. There is a much more fierce pride in the concept of "being an American" than there was prior to September 11th. So, I guess in that aspect, I've changed.