Tuesday, September 11, 2007

September 11th Remembrance

It's hard - heck, nearly impossible - to imagine that the terrorist attacks on September 11th happened six years ago. I was a sophomore in high school, and my memory of that day will forever be entwined with my mom, Mrs. Jack and Mr. Smeltz.

Mom had her prep for the day when the second attack happened, and had been watching the news with her students. At this point, everyone sort of realized it wasn't an accident, so she went down and told Mrs. Jack, my favorite teacher of all-time. Mrs. Jack, in one of her few missteps, thought my mom was lying to her. I guess when you think about it, that was everyone's natural response: No way did that just happen.

As details trickled in the day moved forward, and we had double periods of Chem with Mr. Smeltz, who had the computers in his room streaming video and news about the event. "The world is changing, guys," he told us, and we spent the next hour and a half not listening to one of our beloved Chemistry mix CD's, but to the news instead, just trying to get some sense of what happened. A lot of people pulled their kids out of school, which seemed weird at the time and just as odd now, although who's to judge anyone in a time of panic like that?

This day should not, and will not, ever pass without some tribute to those that died, either in the course of their day-to-day lives or heroically trying to save others. Ignore how the response has gone over the last six years for a moment, and just remember that the world did indeed change on that day, in ways we're still trying to comprehend.

I promise the majority of my posts this semester will not be comprised of YouTube videos, but here's a few - along with a link to The Onion 9/11 edition - that encapsulate some of the responses to that fateful day.



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