I’d like to thank my youngest daughter’s Middle School for carrying on, business as usual. No TV sets wheeled into classrooms. No breathless updates relayed from the Faculty Lounge radio. No teachers talking excitedly on cell phones about people they knew who lived in New York. No teachers remarking loudly, “They bombed the World Trade Center, the bastards!” No other teachers commenting, “If we still had Reagan, we’d have bombed Afghanistan by now.”
No, at J. H. Middle School here in Downstate Illinois, my 11-year-old daughter didn’t have to know anything about terrorists all day. She played the clarinet in band, she had P.E., she had math and English and social studies.
Blessings on the principal for holding the line against “unnecessary disruption”.
And a big fat BRRAAAAPP!! raspberry to the administration of M. A. High School, for refusing to grant my two teenagers, who experienced the events in the first paragraph, the same privilege of peace.
To everyone on the Internet. To people who made started posts to make sure that all NYC people were accounted for. To the people who e-mailed me (some I hadn’t heard from in months!) to make sure I was alive. To all the people on all the sites who gave their e-mails and even home phone numbers, offering to call people, house people, take care of people.
To all the surrounding states, including my own New Jersey, who sent aid to New York and Washington. To people who are donating blood (I would if I could). To all the heroic police and fire fighters, many who lost their lives.
To the innocent people on the four planes, who paid the ultimate price for something that wasn’t their fault. Especially the plane that crashed in Pittsburgh, instead of its target in DC.
To everyone who went out this morning thinking it would be an ordinary day, and got caught up in the unbelivable hell it was. To everyone.
Hear, hear! I second all above comments. I’ve watched coverage nonstop, flipping channels for a variety of viewpoints, such as they are. I am so touched by the actions of all Americans in responding to this horror. The newspeople didn’t overreact, the politicians kept their cool, acted with humility amidst the chaos. I just want to single out two groups for courage way, way, above and beyond the call of duty:
Passengers of United Flight 93, who took their own lives in order to prevent an even more grievous loss of life had the terrorists aboard succeeded in destruction of another target.
Firemen and police officers who first responded to the attack on WTC #1, many of whom are believed lost due to the second attack on WTC #2 and the subsequent collapse of both buildings.
These two groups of people truly demonstrate the greatness of America, and I hope inspire those of us left behind to remember their sacrifice. Lead decent, honorable lives. Be an example.