9/11? What To Do On 9/12? A Reflection...

[Gary Rice]

15 years ago, I was a school teacher in a Seven Hills school, on a beautiful September morning. It was about 9:30 in that morning, when we heard an unusual sound. It sounded something like an aircraft, but it just did not sound right; sort of like it had engine trouble or something. The sound only lasted for a moment, and then it was gone.

A few minutes later, the news reached us teachers that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, and then the calls started coming in from parents. Within an hour, a substantial percentage of students had gone home. During a morning conference period, an aide and I turned on our classroom TV. It was not long that we learned that a plane had been hijacked and turned around just south of Cleveland, and had later gone down in Pennsylvania. Another plane had hit the second tower, and a fourth had hit the Pentagon.

The rest of the day, I do not remember quite as well. School counselors went into full swing, and whatever regular lessons had been scheduled were put aside, as staff and students alike worked on the incomprehensible greater lessons of life. I suppose it was later, when school was over and I finally got home to hug my family, that stuff started to hit me.

Did Flight 93 get hijacked, practically above our heads on that day, or could that noise we heard just have been a coincidental sound of a light plane or a faraway delivery truck? Exactly how much immediate danger WERE we in, that morning? Our imaginations ran wild.

Of course, such questions were just as unanswerable back then, as they are now.

I suppose the point of all this was that we lived for another day.

But there is a larger point.

There always is, I suppose.

See, all of us did NOT live for another day.

Thousands of our fellow citizens lost their lives, and countless other lives were changed forever. Indeed, all of our lives were changed forever.

I suppose that this post needs to have a Lakewood connection, in order to be in this section.

Here's one for you....

I live here.

For today, I guess, I'll just have to be that Lakewood connection, for whatever it may be worth to you...

I've tried to make my days on this earth count even more, ever since that morning.

You know that old saw about trying to make a better world, and all that goes with it?

How about you? Are you a part of that too?

Here in Lakewood, the hospital issue will be on the ballot in November, and there are good and decent people supporting both sides. Whichever side you might be on regarding that issue, (or any other issue, including the Presidential race) the really important thing is that we all continue to stay engaged with our community, our state, and our nation. Study the issues and people involved, evaluate the information, and then, please participate in what's going on. Like others, I have my own opinions about all of this, but I'll leave those particular opinions out of this particular posting, so that a bigger point could be made here:

A point singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie (Woody's son) once made: People who truly CARE have so much more in common than people who do not.

(And yeah, I suppose that includes Donald and Hillary being people who care, as well. My prayers go out to both of them for greater wisdom, and in Hillary's case this morning, for better health.)

The more people we can persuade to care, the better off we all shall be.

One thing more...

If you want to talk about what brings us together or what happened to you back then?

Please post here.

But please oh please...

Let's keep our partisan thoughts away from this thread. This thread needs to be about what we have in common as Americans going forward.

Back to the banjo...

[mjkuhns]

I wish I could offer anything this profound. But this commendable post deserves some kind of comment, so I'll have a go.

I'm not sure that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 have ever quite resonated with me the way they have for a lot of people. I certainly don't have any personal story, per se; I was at work in Des Moines, and read about events on the web, and my life basically went on while I watched the world transform around me.

I think the most significant reaction I have had in the time since is the observation that violence begets violence. I have some sympathy with people who have been harmed by America's wars and are angry. But, obviously, revanchist terrorism only spurred more American bombing and other violence in return. Which has undoubtedly motivated new terror attacks. And here we are.

This is one reason why, even if I don't always manage goodwill toward the people on opposing sides of our domestic political dramas, I appreciate the processes and the use of those processes even if it's flawed. It usually is flawed, and biased, and less than entirely fair, both in official form and in practical application.

But it's still better than distrust and anger running unchecked and inevitably leading to bloodletting.

Since this it seems like this can happen so suddenly, too, I'm grateful for all the times when it doesn't.