It has been 13 long years since that fateful day when 4 airliners were hijacked by men hell-bent on creating terror on our shores. Two of the flights (United Airlines 175 & American Airlines 11) were hijacked from Boston's Logan International Airport; Flight 93 was hijacked from Newark, N.J., and American Airlines 77 from Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. Within 2 hours of the hijackings, terror reigned across this nation's shores. No one knew quite what was going on, but everyone was aware that a horrible tragedy was unfolding in NYC, and then our nation's capital.
In our world, 13 years might as well be 1,000, given the amount of new data that is created on a daily basis. Our world is designed for 6-second Vine videos, not day-long tributes to the 3,000 souls or so who perished in the attacks and the immediate aftermath. We're bringing up a generation with the intent, it seems, of ensuring they have the attention span of a goldfish.
With that in mind, I considered the 6th grade classroom I work in today. As I looked around, it dawned on me that not one single student was alive when the events of 09/11/2001
occurred. They had no stories of their own to reflect upon, only those that had been told to them by family members who were alive when the act occurred. I also thought about the fact that the
young students who were kindergartners at the time of the attacks will be graduating at the end of this school year. For them, it has been something that has hung over them for their entire lives. However, for my students, and even some in grades above, and all students who are below them, it is something that happened in somebody else's life, not their own.
One of the 'popular' arguments in the aftermath of the attacks was that our own government was directly responsible for the attacks perpetuated on our soil, for the sole purpose of going to war in the Middle East to gain their trove of crude oil. They speculated that the buildings collapse too perfectly resembled that of an intentional implosion. I've seen buildings imploded, and they're over with in a matter of seconds, not hours. Also, I watched live, in horror, as the second tower was struck by another jet. It was in that moment that I realized that the first plane had not been an accident, as the early assumption had been, but that we were under attack.
It is because of those who would deny what occurred on 09/11/2001 that we must not ever allow that notion to gain a foothold in the psyche of the American people. It is imperative that each new year of young citizens is exposed to the horrors of that day, that they understand that those events really did occur. They are not made up, they were not a Hollywood movie, unfortunately. Evil people in another part of the world decided they would take the lives of not only innocent Americans, but those from dozens of countries around the world whose only mistake was to be in one of the towers on that morning, to say nothing of the thousands of service men and women who have perished in various conflicts as our government worked to track down those that took part in those attacks specifically, and other attacks in general.
It was a horrible day, one that must not be forgotten. It is our duty to make sure that it is never forgotten.
