9/11

Just like we ask our parents and grandparents "Where were you when JFK was assassinated?" our children and grandchildren will be asking us, "Where were you on 9/11?"

Where was I on 9/11?

It was my senior year of high school. I was sitting in AP English Literature. We didn't have our TV on so none of us knew what was going on. When class was over, I caught snippets of the newscast on other teachers' TVs. When I got to second block, Health Occupations, the Principal, Mr. Toland, made an announcement that the WTC had been attacked. He told the teachers to turn on the TV and let us watch it, only if it didn't disturb class-time. At that point, all hopes of holding an actual class were out the door. We watched in awe as the second plane crashed into the other tower. It was a replay, but it was still a huge shock. When the plane crashed into the Pentagon, we were all dumbfounded. Why would someone do this? What did America do to them? In third block, American Government, the teacher had turned his TV to CNN. He kept the TV on CNN every day for the rest of the semester. For the first week we watched in awe as videos from Osama Bin Laden were played over and over. We followed the ticker at the bottom to see the death toll. Some students had family in NY who worked at the WTC. They stopped coming to school for a while.

9/11 was the biggest event to happen in our lifetimes. (By our, I mean the twenty and thirty-somethings...even the fourty-somethings. Anyone older remembers the Vietnam Conflict and the draft. But still, I don't think that compares to the tragedy of 9/11. More people were killed on 9/11 than in the attack on Pearl Harbor. 9/11 was the biggest tragedy in the country with the largest death count. The country stood united after the attack. We all supported President Bush and were 100% behind him when he said he'd catch Osama Bin Laden. We wanted him to go to Afghanistan and nuke them all. Looking back, the 'nuke them all' mentality was rash and unrealistic. Some people still feel that way. We've found Saddam Hussein, but not Osama Bin Laden. Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. Why did we catch him first?

Since 9/11 we have had more terrorist threats than I can remember. Osama bin Laden is still at large, and still sending video transmissions from his secret base in Afghanistan. There have been two movies made, "Flight 83," and "World Trade Center." Personally, I think the movies were made too soon. The wounds are still too fresh. They say that part of the proceeds will go to the families of the victims. I doubt those people will get half as much as they deserve. If I'd had a family memeber die in the attacks of 9/11, I'd be pissed off about Hollywood trying to make money off of a tragedy like that. They should have waited. The movies were unneccessary. We saw the real footage. We heard tapes of phone calls. We saw people jumping from the burning towers. We don't need to see actors reenacting it. Those images are still fresh in the minds of America's citizens.

Where were you on 9/11/01?