story3060.xml

story3060.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

We were going through the regular schedule of events that day in AP Calc. We had put all the problems in last night's homework set and were getting ready to go over them. Then, a student from the neighboring classroom came rushing in, saying, "turn on the TV, a plane just hit the World Trade Center." A student from my class quickly went over to the TV and switched it on. For the next hour the class as a whole sat in disbelief of what our eyes were seeing. I remember initially being shocked at the news, but don't think I really grasped what was going on till hours later. Students with tears in their eyes were passing my classroom in the hall, but I did not yet feel so emotional that I felt I was going to cry. The rest of the day all my other periods were also spent glued to the TV, hoping to catch breaking news the second it happened, but still I felt that yes, it was a terrible tragedy, but also like it wasn't something that affected me. I almost felt guilty as other kids broke into tears, while I just sat there. It was later on that night that my emotions came over me. It still wasn't because I felt that the event was a personal attack on me, but because of the effect it was having on people that it did touch personally. Later that night, the news focused more on the families that had members who were still missing. It broke my heart to see children holding pictures of parents that dropped them off at school, but never returned to pick them up. Of recently married men, who feared the loss of their new brides. Of mothers waiting to her of their child's survival. But all these people could do was wait. Wait to hear the good news or bad. Wait to shed tears of joy or those of sorrow. Wait to learn if evil had stripped them of their happiness.
It took this, the sight of people in sorrow and anguish, to make the events of September Eleventh seem real. Without human emotion, events, even as great as the attacks were, don't take on their full effect. Someone could have done the same thing to those buildings when they were empty and stimulated much less of a response. The most powerful way to attack someone is through harming their loved ones. The destruction of material things is nothing compared to the destruction of life.