As my first blog entry, I will offer the text of my email. Feel free to contribute and react to what you read and what I and others have posted
For those of you who are reading this and may not know me, I am a long-time educator at Watertown High School and am now one of the people who is responsible for helping teachers make effective use of computer technology.
Here's the message I sent:
Many of my strongest memories of 9-11 are all connected with Watertown High School. I suspect that those of you who were here 7 years ago might say the same thing.
The strongest memory of all involves Rich Thomas - he is the one who stepped into my philosophy class that morning and said that "a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers." I turned on the TV and I, like most Americans, hoped that it was just an accident.
It wasn't, of course.
My second strongest memory was what I thought when I heard an analyst say that "our world is now changed." I had no idea what that meant and thought that maybe it was an overstatement. I realize now that it wasn't.
Finally, I remember that as comfortable as I was in discussing almost anything with my students, we never really talked about 9-11. I couldn't do it, partly because I didn't understand it and partly because it was (and still is) so wrenching.
Today we reflect and remember. It might also offer a "teaching moment." I know if I were in the classroom today, I would ask two simple questions. First, I would ask, "What do you remember?" And then I would ask, "How do you think the world has changed?" If you ask these questions, it might teach you something about how they see the world and it might also help them understand their place in it a little better. And its quite possible that some of your students are like me in that they haven't quite come to grips with the events of that day. Maybe you can help.
Let me know what you remember and I would also be interested in knowing how you think your life or your world has been impacted by these events.
15 comments:
Scott Walker came and told me that day. I know that I did not understand the magnitude because other small planes had hit tall buildings before. My sister from Pierre was stuck in Minneapolis because they shut down all air traffic. She found friends to take her as far as some small Minnesota town. I went to get her and brought her to Watertown, and she had others take her to Pierre. I remember getting gas before I set out to get her and the line at the pump being scary long. I think that is what woke me up-- that something across the nation could make us go nuts right here in Watertown, that this was something that would shake us all up. I remember watching the news and seeing people jump out of the buildings to their death. I will never forget those images. I wondered how I should tell my 5 year old.
Somehow I managed to make it to the fifth grade without knowing what the World Trade Center was. I distinctly remember walking down the hall at Jefferson Elementary and seeing TV sets on in the 6th grade classrooms that I passed. Upon reaching the bathroom one of my classmates, Ryan Briggs, told me that a plane had hit on of the twin towers in the World Trade Center Complex. The rest of the morning we had the TV on in Mr. Eggen's classroom and watched in horror as the towers collapsed. I remember how difficult it was to comprehend as a 5th grader that this could happen in our country and that there were groups in the world that planned these types of attacks.
There are certainly mixed feelings about whether or not the attacks could have been prevented. No matter what your thoughts may be on how governmental handed things leading up to, during, or after the attacks, I think this was an eye opener for all of us and inspired a sense of patriotism that hadn't been present in that way for a while.
It was my first week of college. I woke up for what seemed to me an ungodly early PoliSci class and ran into one of my WHS classmates, who said, "There's a fire at the Pentagon." He was laughing, so I laughed too, thinking someone started a toaster on fire making breakfast or something equally innocent. The TV in my classroom was already on when I arrived; the footage unfortunately revealed that my naive speculation about what I'd heard was wrong. Class wasn't canceled, but at least we weren't asked to learn anything more than what we were watching on the TV. Back in the dorms, I met at least two people on my floor alone who had relatives (a father and something more distant) who worked daily in the World Trade Center. It struck me how small the world is.
The media responded quickly. I know everyone heard about people jumping from the building, footage which wasn't shown after the first few minutes. On the one year anniversary, I met at a professor's house to watch some of the footage from that day not previously released, and I asked what all the background noise was. He gave me a sick look and said, "Those are the bodies hitting the ground." I think that was worse than 9/11 itself for me, understanding the real impact for the first time.
My German pen pal, whom I hadn't written to in years, sent me a nice card saying how horrible she thought it was that someone would attack our country and telling me her thoughts were with me. I was surprised to hear from her, and touched.
September 11th is also my sister's birthday. I think no one celebrated with her for several years.
I was at work when someone told me a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. In a short amount of time, the TV was on in our conference room, and we walked by constantly to see what was happening. It wasn't an immediate feeling of the magnitude of what was happening like I would imagine people felt when they heard JFK was shot. It came in degrees until I saw people jumping from windows and the towers coming down.
I don't remember it vividly like many tell me they do. It seems more like a blur to me now. I am uncomfortable with what I can't recall. I feel like I should remember it better.
This anniverary makes me think of family because I spent a lot of time appreciating mine. I remember how people came together to help, how proud I felt when I heard that a local manufacturer was making needed items to assist at ground zero, how we all wanted to be part of healing this national wound.
I was a sophomore at WHS on September 11th, 2001. It was KiYi week and our dress up day was "super heroes". I was dressed up as one of the power puff girls (cartoon super hero). I remember vividly sitting in first block Spanish 2, and a boy in my class walked in late and said "a plane crashed into the world trade center". Initially my teacher didn't believe him and we went on with class, and I really thought nothing of it. With about 20 minutes remaining in class the principal at the time came on the intercom and asked teachers to turn on TV's and watch "history unfold"--or something similar to that. My teacher turned on the TV, and we watched the horrific footage, and I remember slowing reaching up and taking the big red bow off of my head (part of my costume) and feeling that it was all very silly at that moment. I have replayed that moment in my mind many times, and it remains very vivid.
I felt safe all day at school (which I give my teachers a lot of credit for), but will never forget the panic I saw/felt upon leaving school. Especially the overflow of vehicles at many gas stations.
I am now in my first year of teaching, and my students are very young (K-5 & 7th grade). My oldest students are 12 & 13, and were only 5 or 6 on 9/11---it was interesting today to learn what they remember, if anything. Some have vivid memories like I do, some are unsure of what happened.
I got dad's email and replied to him by sending part of a letter I wrote to a friend in Japan on 9-11-2008. It's long, but it's a snapshot of what I was thinking on that day. I thought I'd post it here. -Brian Shephard
9-11-01
I write these words approximately twenty-four hours after I wrote the beginning of this letter. I re-read my comments at the beginning and was angered at myself for indulging in such hyperbole. ?When so much happens in so little time?? seems no longer applicable to insignificant changes in my life when compared to the monumental changes that will certainly occur around the globe in the aftermath of today?s events.
This morning, Laura Nesson woke me up at 10:30 and told me that airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I stumbled upstairs and began what would become a day of marathon TV watching. My classes shortened by professors who had personal connections to people who worked in or near the twin towers, I had the day to watch everything unfold.
I have the benefit of experiencing these events from afar. Indeed, I may be in one of the safest places imaginable in the U.S.; nobody would benefit from destroying anything around here. But in spite of my far remove from events on the East Coast, I have felt a distinct change in something (everything?) around me. People, myself included, walk around with stunned or detached expressions. Long-winded professors have little if anything to say. My friends involved in the military are ready to leave to God-knows-where on a moment?s notice. My housemates, charicatures of red-blooded American men that they are, are more angry than usual, expounding hawkish sentiments directed toward Arabs, ?sand niggers.? There is, I suspect, an unspoken fear among those around me that this unprecedented age of economic and military calm is about to halt altogether, or that maybe it already did when that first plane hit its mark.
And I am afraid that the ripples I experience here are nothing compared to the tsunami that hit New York this morning. 50,000 people worked in those buildings. Though at this early hour we do not know how many were killed or even how many were present, I estimate that the death toll in New York City alone will approach or exceed 10,000. Ten thousand. Almost 100 times the number killed in Oklahoma City. Parents. Grandparents. Fiances. Friends. Gone. A tragedy that will leave hardly a citizen in the U.S. unaffected. Already I have talked to four people who knew somebody in the area or the building itself. An entire country in shock, angry and afraid.
And those are only the human, psychological tolls. The center of world finance collapsed on top of those people this morning. The Japanese stock exchange, now in its second hour of morning trading, was down six percent in the opening minutes. The U.S. stock exchange will not even open when morning comes to our half of the world. Here, in Vermillion, cars are lined up ten deep at the gas pumps, in anticipation of what I?m told could be a price hike that brings gas to three dollars a gallon or more.
And, perhaps worst of all, almost the entire nation wants war. Who exactly we should fight is unclear, perhaps unimportant to most. If it is the usual suspect, Osama Bin Laden, and if any mideastern country harbors him, we will have war. Our military leaders, as well as our Commander in Chief, have made that clear. I fear that a war will be waged even if no single nation is found to have cooperated. Americans want retribution, and it doesn?t seem to matter if it is well thought out or deserved.
And what if, heaven forbid, the war should come to my door? If ever there was an event that could trigger a conflict involving most of the world, this is it. What if we attack, say, Afghanistan and India, Pakistan, Iraq, and Russia side with them? What if while this is occurring, China decides that this is the time to take Taiwan back for good? What if the U.S. decides to devote everything to its terrible, swift revenge and must increase enlistment in order to do so? You see what I?m getting at, I?m sure.
So here I am in warm, safe South Dakota wondering whether American peace and innocence, my way of life, will be able to stand up in the tremors caused by those men in those planes. Perhaps this is all a bit extreme- I hope so much that it is. But in my gut lies a fear that I have yet to imagine or understand the effects of this assault on my country.
By the time you get this letter, we will almost certainly know more about who the aggressors were and what the American response will be. I write knowing this, and knowing that much of it may not be relevant upon your reading of it. But I think that it is useful still, if only because it will give you some perspective on what we in America experienced on this day which will not be soon forgotten.
Another purpose of this letter can be discovered by comparing the first section, written yesterday, to this. My life was such a mess. I had so many problems. All of those now seem trivial when I consider the immense human suffering being felt all over this country.
I want you to know that I love you very much, and always will. I believe that on an international and personal basis, only love will bring us all through this. I fear that in our rush to retribution we will forget that and much will be lost. Meanwhile, I?ll do my best to do what I can, with what I have, where I am.
Yours,
Brian
I may only have been a freshman, unable to vote, and unable to drive, but I remember exactly where I was on September 11, 2001. I remember sitting in my first block intro to computer class working on a PowerPoint project when Mrs. Roby turned the TV on. I didn’t really pay any attention to the TV at first, just wanting to finish my project. It wasn’t long, though, before my eyes were glued to the screen, watching the horrific images of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center play over and over on CNN. I remember watching as the towers collapsed. Sometime later, an announcement was made explaining what was happening. I remember going to the Google homepage, wanting to do a news search on what was happening, and seeing the words “Breaking news: Attacks hit US” directly below the search bar. The rest of the day was kind of a blur… School still went on, but everyone’s focus was on CNN and the attacks.
Most of us will never forget the details of that fateful day in September seven years ago.
The memories of that day and the days that followed are so vivid. Whether we are boarding a plane, browsing the movie selection at Blockbuster and seeing Fahrenheit 9/11, United 93, and World Trade Center on the shelves, debating the public forum nationals topic, or watching the news coverage of dedication ceremonies on TV, we remember.
I have not forgotten.
Not in the least.
I was just pulling out of the drive-thru lane at my bank in Saint Paul when I heard about the first plane crashing into the Twin Towers on MPR. At that time no one knew the magnitude of the situation and they referred back to other plane/building accidents in New York's past. I drove from Saint Paul to downtown Minneapolis where I worked as a property manager of several office buildings. I had just parked in the ramp at work when I remembered that I had a tiny portable tv in the center console of my truck. I pulled it out and as I walked to the ramps elevator I tuned in the news to see the crash on the tiny 3"x3" screen. The elevator was going down as I watched the second plane hit the towers on that ridiculously tiny screen - and I didn't believe my eyes. The screen was so little and all I could think was that somehow it wasn't a tiny television but some sort of handheld video game with very realistic and disturbing explosions. By the time I walked into my office all of our various building engineers and cleaning staff had found their way to the office and they crowded around me and this teeny tiny screen silently. A few minutes later someone arrived with a normal television borrowed from a basement break room. We all sat in shock and looked at burning buildings. Then calls began to come in left and right from our tenants. There was initially a lot of fear that downtowns of major cities were going to be under attack and lots of offices closed and sent people home. I too left work at about 1PM and found the whole city was dead – malls were closed – store were closed and everything was really quite – so rare for the city, and so strange.
Kyle Schull walked into my classroom first block and asked me if I had been watching the news before school. I tolk him that I didn't have time that morning, so we turned on the TV and it was showing the first tower in flames. As we were standing there the second plane hit the second tower. I knew at that point that someone or some group had just attacked the U.S. We kept the TV on all day and that is all that I talked about in every class. I had many students who were really frightened by what had occurred that day. One of them in particular asked a question that I had to take pause to answer: she asked why these people did not like her. She saw herself as being someone who does the right thing. She had a difficult time understanding a hatred for our country being different from a hatred of her. Three years later Kyle Schull decided to enter the Naval Academy and when I asked him why he was doing that he told me that it was because of what we had discussed on 9/11. He said that as we watched the events of the day unfold he had made up his mind that he needed to do his part to protect or way of life. The events of that day have forever changed all of us!
I was in the southern Chinese city of Dong Guan, about 2 hours drive north of Hong Kong. Sometime during the evening of Sept 11th, China time, we’d seen the first glimpses of CNN’s “Breaking news” on the satellite feed in the Dorm style living area we shared with senior executives that a plane had crashed into the North tower.
Most of the executives were from Taiwan and I was the only foreigner in the room. We were switching back and forth between the Hong Kong news stations in Chinese and CNN....I called Lydia back in Taiwan; neither of us speaking, both watching CNN as events unfolded….The company owner, with us in the dorm, clicked back to CNN just as UA175 blew thru the South tower and the TV area went completely silent. None of us could immediately comprehend what we'd just witnessed. It was a good 15 seconds before I realized I was still on the phone with Lydia. Said goodbye and tried to call friends in the NY area; 2 of whom worked next door at the Deutsch Bank building (eventually destroyed when both towers came down; both friends were uninjured and had evacuated by the time the 2nd tower collapsed).
By 2001, I'd been living in Asia for nearly 10 years and become somewhat accustomed to my Chinese/Asian friends internalization of emotions (compared to many Westerners; especially myself) so was completely unprepared for the sight of grown Chinese men openly weeping when we realized that it wasn't an accident, that people were actually jumping from the towers and that the world had changed forever.
The president/owner of the company remarked in the hours that followed the attacks, that while it was an attack that occurred on US soil, it was an attack against the WORLD trade centers. It was an attack against humanity and many people, from many countries and of many faiths had been the indiscriminate targets of hatred that to this day I still can not comprehend.
I've been back in China again this past week (leaving for Indonesia on Sunday) and was in Shanghai on the 11th; watched the memorials on CNN during the evening. Emotions returned and I still can not comprehend or understand the hate that drives people to do the most horrible things. As my former employer/friend commented that evening, 7 years ago, it was an attack against humanity. Citizens from 115 different countries were killed on Sept 11, 2001. I wish for tolerance and look to the good that we are all capable of....
Erik Reyerson
Sept 13, 2008
Tianjin/Beijing
erik@northernlightsco.com
I was working at the newspaper when the Advertising Manager ran back to the Graphics Department and announced that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. After a while, I was able to connect with my brother who works in Washington, DC. They were in some basement listening to Air Force One fly overhead. The metro was closed that evening so they had to get home another way.
I remember listening to the radio and the rescuers searching for a baby and hoping they would find that baby.
On my 40th birthday on September 24, 2001, the New Yorker magazine was a black cover with two very faint images of the Twin Towers. I saved the magazine.
I, and the world, are still very much impacted by this historic day. This year I thought of other countries who experience this stress and terrorism on a more regular basis. I thought of my 1st grade daughter in 2001 drawing airplanes crashing into buildings. I thought of nearly every day when I glance at the clock and it says 9-11.
I was waiting in the English professors' hallway at Augie just before my P.R. class. Janet Blank-Libra was on the phone and then shortly came out of her office saying, "Something terrible has happened in New York. Come to the faculty lounge and see." My memory is foggy, but I think I saw the second plane hit live.
Then I went in to John Bart's PR class. He obviously had not heard the news. It was the week Michael Jordan was announcing his comeback, and Bart lectured on all the logistics surrounding that event. I thought I must have been the only one who saw the news, and didn't say anything. At the very end of the 90 minute class, someone said, "How do you think the stuff going on in New York and Washington will affect Jordan's announcement?" and then told the class what they had seen.
I remember my student government friends meeting with the college president to discuss the "campus response," which seemed a ridiculous turn of phrase. The response turned out to be a worship service that evening in the chapel, with Pastor Don Niedringhaus preaching and faculty members there to lead small groups. I still can't hear or sing the hymn "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less" without thinking of that evening.
Tricia Halling and I drove all the way out to Casey's on the north end of Sioux Falls to get gas because it was usually cheap there, and we were just sure it would be gone the next day. I remember feeling angry that I had never been to New York City and would never see lower Manhattan as it had been.
I tanked a bit that semester--fall of my senior year. I was taking Shakespeare and felt completely victimized by the thought of comedy.
We started bombing Afghanistan on the Sunday of homecoming. I remember skipping the morning's festivities, grabbing some taco john's, and listening to NPR in the parking lot in tears for our country or maybe just my own directionlessness.
I know this is late. But reading all of this was so compelling, I had to contribute.
On September 11, 2001 I was nearly a month into my twelfth year. My father and I, as a routine for most of my childhood, watch television in the morning. Sixth grade was typically the CBS Early Show. My dad made me breakfast, but for some reason we didn't watch the news that morning. So I just went to school.
I was attending Lincoln Elementary, and I remember the teachers were talking to each other in fast low whispers, so it was obviously more serious than regular gossip. Mr. Bemis turned on the television during our spelling class. At first, no one really cared, we thought maybe it was an accident somewhere, and I hadn't even realized the World Trade Towers existed. But even though no one explained anything to us, I think there was a sense that whatever was happening was inexplicable and very serious. We went on with our day, to music class. Since it was nice out, we walked outside. Danny Towle was talking about how he had been in the top of one of the towers the summer before, and Meghan Buhler was talking about how it was historical. I didn't know what they were talking about, I was just extremely confused at that point.
When we got back to class, we were given extra time for spelling. Mr. Bemis tried turning off the television once, but eventually turned it back on. Instead of the two planes on the footage, now the towers fell. When I arrived home, I became extremely afraid; my parents weren't home from work, and I had been thinking about it all the way home. So for about three hours, I turned on a Now 6 tape and shot basketball hoops. My mom tried explaining everything to me, but I had come to the realization that no one knew what was going on, and if they didn't, anything was open, anywhere for destruction. Fortunately, I knew Watertown was the most deslolate terrorist target in the world. But I was still afraid. Eventually I wasn't.
On the 8th grade NYC trip we went to ground zero. I learned about just how much it changed New York, from a man named Chad who was our tour guide. Even now, I feel like people are forgetting, and yes, while younger generations have no grasp of this event, I still feel a pang of what I felt that day when I reflect upon it. Also, I read a book this summer called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close about a boy named Oskar who lost his father on September 11. It's a great book. Highly recommended, by Jonathan Safran Foer.
I was a 20 year career military officer and we had been attached on our own soil. In all candor, 9/11/01 is really a blur in my memory. Not because I was not thinking clearly, but rather because that day and the days immediately following we were assessing and reacting and responding to so many different things that the days run together for me. We were executing what we had planned for, what I had experienced before, but this time it was at a distance. The military was securing all key elements, assessing the situation, and preparing for the worst. Everyone who was not with the Military had to walk off base and be picked up - no civilian vehicles were allowed to move. All military were called to battle stations, simultaneously, execution, planning, and "what ifs" began at the highest levels.
I was in Colorado Springs - responsible for about 1000 people literally spread around the world, responsible for ensuring everyone had the communications they needed -- and I was facing the weight of asking many of them to step into harm's way -- of which not one hesitated. Each quietly, and without fanfare or self promotion, set to the tasks they knew they needed to undertake... We were making sure state-side forces had combat communications as they responded to the events and secured the US skies -- and we doubled check communications world wide as we faced the unknown -- and began preparing for any number of possible events and responses. As all this proceeded, I worried how the bigger WE (the country) would respond, and I wrote a letter to the Public Opinion encouraging people.
My group was also taking on responsibilities normally overseen at the Pentagon as they dealt with their situation -- there was no time to grieve, that would all come later. In fact, I did not look at the casuality list until after my shift -- I was afraid I would lose focus. It is those folks that I think about on days like Sep 11 2008... as well as those that I know are out there today carrying on with their tasks... The military and the first responders (Police, Fire, Rescue).
Do I think we are more secure -- absolutely! Could things have been done differently -- no doubt. But the fact that seven years later there has not been an attack on our soil says something.
This frightened my very being! Shook my core. I don't ever think I have had that feeling before. I wondered if that is how people felt when Pearl Harbor hit. I also thought of my son, Kyle, who was a Jr. in h.s. at the time and had such a keen interest in politics and serving our country. I worried about how this might affect him. Instead of fright, Kyle became more dedicated. He felt his "calling" into the military even stronger than before. When I went to the high school that afternoon when school was over; I witnessed Kyle coming out of the school and just staring up at our country's flag the entire time. I felt a huge sense of pride. Pride in our country and pride in my son.
I still have the sense of fear for our country.....that this could happen again, anytime. But very proud that we have men and women like my Kyle who are willing to defend our country!! God Bless America. God Bless all of our troops!!
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