September 11, 2001, isn't this a day we all remember well? Brad was working as a firefighter at the time and was just finishing up a 24 hour shift when he heard the news. He spent the day watching and listening to the news with our neighbors, the Walkers. Me, I was in my classroom. I left my home around 7:00 that morning and had not listened to the news on my way to school. When my first students came in for Spanish class, they told me a plane had hit the world trade center. My students thought I was crazy because I didn't pause for a moment to talk about it. They problaby still joke with their friends, "Ya, I was in Spanish class and Mrs. Belt didn't even believe that what we were saying was true. She just kept teaching." They didn't know, though, that I didn't understand. How could a plane crash into the world trade center and what consequence would it have? How could one understand without seeing the horrific images on the news. It was later that day, when I saw those images (and the many images to follow), that the full impact of what had happened finally impressed itself upon me. 10 years later we, as a nation, are still deeply affected by what happened on that day. Granted, we all knew that the news coverage would be 100% about the anniversary of 9/11, but even reading the comics today, I was touched that so many of them had 9/11 as a theme. One in particular, Zits, caught my attention.
Isn't this what 9/11 was all about? That in any moment, those we love and treasure can be torn away from us? Isn't this what 9/11 taught America? Didn't the lives of the rescuers teach us, that even strangers can care about those we love? On 9/11 I saw an America broken, but on 9/11 I also saw an America united, an America that cared.
“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “
- President George W. Bush, December 11, 2001
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