But then, 20 years ago today, when I was in 5th grade, for the first time in my life, I lived through an infamous event on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
It was a pleasant September morning as I followed a typical routine, getting up, having breakfast, and heading off to Irving Elementary School, which started at 8 AM. Little did I know as I made my way to school that a catastrophe was unfolding.
The day started with math class, which lasted until 9:10. After it ended, as students who went to other math classes reentered my homeroom class with Ms. Gilyot, I started to sense something was terribly wrong. The teachers started talking with each other in a concerned tone. While my class was supposed to have time to work on a writing assignment after math class, we instead went outside for recess. Another teacher, Mrs. Dionesotes, was on her cell phone.
I saw my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Green, leading her students back inside from recess. I greeted her, and before going inside, she made a remark about how no planes were flying. I was pretty frightened by that comment, wondering what kind of disaster would prevent planes from flying.
We were back in our classroom around 10:45, and spent a few minutes working on our writing assignment before going to lunch at 11 o'clock. Another teacher was in the room, and told us that something had happened, and precautions were being taken. It made me think of a news story I saw over the summer about a large vehicle that crashed on a freeway in Chicago, spilling hazardous material, and precautions were taken to clean up the situation.
We first went to the lunchroom to eat. Even though it was a pleasant day outside, the school staff decided to keep us inside, perhaps because of the jittery atmosphere. My 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. LoCoco, announced to the students something had happened and our teachers would tell us about it.
On days when we didn't go outside for recess after lunch, we stayed inside and watched a movie, and this day was one of those many instances when it was a rather lame movie. As I exited the auditorium to head back to my homeroom, I heard someone from another homeroom relate what his teacher had told his class, that terrorists had hijacked airplanes and crashed them into buildings. That was the first moment all day I had heard what happened, and my initial reaction was being totally horrified. It sounded like an act of war, and I was horrified that such an act could be inflicted on us in the United States.
Shoftly after noon, in our classroom, Ms. Gilyot gave us the full run-down of what had happened, about how planes had been crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New YOrk City and into the Pentagon. I had never heard of the Pentagon, and so I raised my hand to ask what that was. Ms. Gilyot explained it was a 5-sided building near Washington, D.C., where the Department of Defense has its headquarters. She even drew a pentagon on the board.
She then said that she was in no mood to deal with schoolwork, which was telling given how the year had started with her and other teachers punishing on students who hadn't gotten their out-of-school work done. Yet this day, that hectic start to the year gave was to even greater chaos.
Instead of our usual classes, we would watch a movie that afternoon, The Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which was more palatable than the movie we watched during our lunch hour, and which I enjoyed more than the book I had read at some point in the previous two years. It's telling we watched a movie set in New York City.
We left school on schedule at 2:55. As we got packed up, Ms. Gilyot remarked our parents would hug us tight.
As I got to the intersection of Ridgeland and Harvard, I saw Dad waiting for me. At the time, he worked in an office complex just east of O'Hare Airport. Concerned the airport could be a target of the terrorist attacks, everyone in that complex was dismissed early as a precaution. He walked me home, and one remark he made was how some people thought the first plane crash into the North Tower was an accident.
I got home a few minutes later. My brother came home around 4 PM from Juilan Junior High School, where he had just started 7th grade. Because I sensed his strong interest in technology, I asked him if he had heard about the Twin Towers. He then remarked, "Who hasn't?" Hearing his response was the first time that day I sensed the colossal impact of the terrorist attacks and how they would alter the course of history.
I spoke with both of my grandmothers in those hours after school. My maternal Grandma Dottie remarked that some of the news anchors had been talking almost nonstop since 9 AM that morning. During my conversation with my paternal Grandma Vel, she said we should offer up a "Hail Mary".
After dinner, I have a vague memory of riding in the car with Mom on an errand, though I don't remember where exactly. We were back home by 7:30 to watch President Bush's address on live TV from the Oval Office, which had almost been attacked by a hijacked plane, and after he had spent the day being shuttled around the country to stay safe from the volatility in Washington. D.C. Hearing his recitation of Psalm 23:4 offered such a comforting touch at the end of a harrowing day.
I acknowledge that I was far away from where the attacks occurred, so they didn't affect me in quite the same way as those who were directly involved. But all of us, throughout the United States, have that day burned in our memories because of the gravity of the situation. In his memoir Decision Points, President Bush says that over time, September 11 will come to feel like an honored day on the calendar, but for him, it will always be more. I think about how his presidency shifted from focusing on domestic policy to foreign policy and the War on Terror in a single day, and how marked and sudden that shift occurred, underscored by his visit to Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, FL, where he was promoting his education agenda and where he learned of the attacks in New York City, even while in a classroom with students.
I sense for me, it will always be more, because of the palpable sense of horror, shock, and pain that marked that day. It's a day that certainly stands out in my youth year memories. Yet starting the next day, life continued to move on, as I went to school as scheduled. That is certainly a contrast from the present pandemic, which has disrupted life in much different ways, and while it has been a heartbreaking situation, September 11 was terrible in its own ways, distinct from this pandemic.
A few days later, on the evening of September 14, the national day of mourning and remembrance, we joined some of our neighbors and gathered outside on our front steps in a spirit of prayer, while other neighbors played patriotic music. On September 20, I was in front of the TV again to watch live coverage of President Bush's address before a joint session of Congress. He opened his speech by remarking that in the normal course of events, there is a gathering in the House Chamber for a report on the State of the Union, which he then said had already been delivered by the American people.
Indeed, in the face of such great evil, such great valor emerged. First responders acted to save lives at the Pentagon and in New York City. Passengers on United flight 93 stormed the cockpit, rallied by Todd Beamer's words, "Are you guys ready? Let's roll." Nearly 10 years later, and just days after a raid killed Osama bin Laden, Todd's wife Lisa was the main speaker at my brother's graduation ceremony at Wheaton College, where Todd's name is on the Beamer Center. She spoke about participating in the work of redemption in the circumstances of our lives.
As we're wounded by the terrible reality of evil in the world, we also recognize and take comfort in how much good there is in the world, and how much emerged in the aftermath of September 11. People sought to help out those who had been directly affected in those days of the aftermath. Around the world, people offered sympathy for the USA. (At the Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, there are condolence books on display from other countries.) Members of Congress gathered at the capitol later on September 11 and sang in unison, "God Bless America". There was a pervading sense of unity in the United States in those days, which we haven't since summoned up in quite the same way.
I still think there's a sense of hope, even in the divisive vitriol that pervades US society today. I think of a book profiling children born on September 11, 2001. (Notably, two of my former RE students were born on September 11, although in years after 2001, yet still remaining me of how life still springs from that associated with death.)
I'm reminded of Christina-Taylor Green, who was born on September 11, 2001--and I'm pretty certain she was in that book. She didn't want her birthday to cast a shadow on her life, but let it serve as inspiration for her to serve her country. That sense of patriotism surely motivated her to go with a neighbor to a Congress on Your Corner event in Tucson with then-US Representative Gabby Giffords on a Saturday morning in January 2011, where she was fatally and tragically shot along with several others. She may have died in a shooting motivated by the hatred that has unfortunately spread throughout our society today, but the spirit of how she lived her life is still incredible, especially in the face of great evil. In fact, I heard that right before the shooting, her neighbor told Christina-Taylor, "You could be like Gabby."
As I reflect on my life, September 11 created an atmosphere where I came to think more deeply about the United States of America is all about. I was motivated to look more deeply into our country and its history, which got me to ponder how I could do my part to be a patriot and edify this country. That made my time in social studies classes in the following years so important, even as I studied on these topics on my own outside of class.
As we remember the attacks and those who perished and who were affected, and served in the military in response, I pray that we are inspired to find ways to edify the United States, and how our actions can help build a better world.
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