nmah1279.xml

nmah1279.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-06

I was asleep on the morning of 9-11 when my mother ran into my room and woke me up. "Come see this Gloria, I think you'll be talking about this in school today!" She screamed at me. At first I really didn't give it a whole lot of thought but when I saw our kitchen T.V, I could not believe it. A large tower... with smoke coming out of the side. The tower looked familiar but at the time, without the other tower in the picture, I didn't know that it was the World Trade Center. As my mother filled me in on what had happened and suspicions of terrorism, the second tower was hit. I watched, in horror as fire shot out the opposite side of where the plane hit; just thinking about those poor people that had to have been working when the planes hit their building. I couldn't help but wonder if this attack on the World Trade Center was just an intro to what was going to happen. I couldn't help being selfish and fearing for my own town, my neighborhood, my home. If this was actually some terrorist attack, whats stopping them from continuing the attack on other states, cities, or monuments?
I went back to my room to start getting ready for school and I started thinking about the people. The people in those towers, just doing there job, minding their own business. The people down on the streets looking up at the smoking towers that had become a part of their daily lives in one way or another. The people on the planes that were kidnapped in mid-air and were being thrown into the towers. The brave heros who ran, willingly into the towers trying to save lives. The people who were watching this tragedy on T.V that are crying and mourning for the victims, whether the ones they cry for are loved ones, or complete strangers. And of course, those crazy people that could bring themselves to doing such a horrific thing; killing so many innocent, causing so much pain. What was going through their minds, what drove them to insanity?
I was finishing my hair when I heard my mothers shrills from the kitchen and I knew, something bad was happening. I ran to the T.V and caught a replay of the first tower falling. I watched as my mixed emotions gathered up into tears. The building crumbled and fell like a house of cards. The people, those poor people. The firemen had just run in, and now they lay burried under the rubble. Their grave sight had been choosen for them, and there was nothing they could do. Then the second tower fell. I grew cold, and time seemed to stand still. I felt helpless sitting at the breakfast table staring at a T.V screen, but what could I do? The one thing I knew I could do, and would do, was pray. I would pray for all the people involved. The victims, may God watch over them and lead them safely to his home. And may God have mercy on the souls of those responsible, because we wont.

I suppose you could say that I have a new understanding of how the world works, and how damaging hatred can be. I noticed that a lot of people "magically" got very patriotic. I understand the support for the US they are announcing, but I do not agree with their way of going about it. I, personally, am just as patriotic now as I was on September 10th. For some people, their patriotism may be real, but in many ways it seems fake.

The victims. The people that experienced this tragedy first hand. The victims are not just the people that were in the tower or on the planes. Victims are the people in New York that could see the events from their bedroom window. Victims are the people who lost loved ones. Victims are the ones that felt heartache as they watched the towers fall on their television. We were all vicitims of what happened. Our lives will never be the same, some more drastically than others. We must just remember that we were all the victims and we all hurt, but we held together strongly. We made it through the relay and will continue with USA pride!

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I did carry a flag. I already had a large American flag sticker across my saxophone case and another on my cell phone. I carried those around with the same pride I always had.