Tuesday, September 11, 2012

9/11 eleven years later


Eleven years ago, I stood in my living room and cringed at the sight of the first plane hitting the tower. I thought, what an horrific accident. I felt terrible for the people on that plane, and for those in the World Trade Center building. I did not realize that the horror had only just begun.
I headed to school and turned on my car radio. Ilistened intently to the reports. Then, I heard that another plane had crashed.

No one was sure what was going on. Teachers were asking one another, "Did you
hear about the plane crashes in NY?" The gravity of the situation -America was under
attack- was like a collective punch in the gut. We all felt winded, worried, and wounded.

My preschool classroom was in the lower level of an inner city middle school. What I remember most is the panicked African American youth in the hall who shouted at me, "America is at
war!"

"Calm down," I said. "Don't jump to conclusions. Nobody knows for sure what's going on. This does not mean WAR."

He insisted he saw it on TV and that military jets were intercepting planes.

I walked into my classroom, made phone calls to my family and then stood in stunned silence as my preschool students went about their school day, unaffected by the attacks. I knew my students were okay. My aide was capable, so I left her in charge. I felt as though I HAD to do
something patriotic to relieve the mounting tension in the middle schoolstudents, although I was not in charge of any of them. I came up with an idea. I did not consult the principal or counselor. I cut 12 inch red, white and blue construction paper strips, like kids use to make paper chains at Christmas. I visited each classroom. I passed out a strip to each student and asked them to write what they were feeling at the moment about the tragedy; any fears, any words, anything would be acceptable. Some asked if they should sign it.
"If you want to," I said.

I collected the strips and rolled them into loops, then I stapled them to the bulletin
board in the cafeteria. I assembled more than two hundred of them into an American flag. I stood back and admired that "feeling flag". I read, "I am afraid." "I want to kick their asses." "Bomb them." "Why did this happen?" "What now?" "I want to go home."

I felt the same way. At lunch I observed students looking for their piece of that flag. I listened to them read their words aloud, giving voice to fears and feelings, owning their emotions.
I don't know if my action did any good. It just felt good to do SOMETHING.

I mentioned to my husband a couple of years after 9/11 that I felt as if the color had drained from America. I first noticed it on highways and parking lots. Most new cars were gray, beige or white. Emotions ran the gamut, people were depressed; everyone seemed blah and everything
seemed bland. Now, eleven years later, I notice that there are so many red cars and trucks on the road. Color is returning to America. People are blue from being homeless, hungry, jobless and hopeless. The "haves" have more green, while the "have-nots" shrivel, their egos bruised, deep,
purple. There is an underlying current that runs through the population as orange as a flame; fire rages in the gut of all who are suffering during this recession. We're desperately missing the color yellow, sunshine yellow, happy face yellow.
My plea to politicians at every level of government is do SOMETHING, reach across the aisle, the great divide and extend a hand. Come to some agreement and shake on it.
"I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony..." Remember that commercial where people of all colors, creeds, religions and ethnicities joined hands?

My heart aches for the victims, their families and all of us.

7 comments:

Chatty Crone said...

I am thinking about this all day too.

Kim Lehnhoff said...

Did you know that yellow is one of the most popular car colors this year?

Color's coming back.

I agree about the politicians needing to cooperate, finally. Enough divisiveness - we're the UNITED States of America, after all.

Sioux Roslawski said...

Yes, I remember that Coca Cola commercial. Mary Tyler Moore was a single workin' gal, living downstairs from her friend Rhoda. Love American Style gave us little 15-minute long snippets of "love" stories. And Coca Cola told us that if we all held hands and drank a Coke, we'd all live together in peace.

Unfortunately, life is not that simple...

Susan said...

Very good, thought-provoking post, Linda. You did a good deed for ALL those students, all those years back on this fateful day.

Things have improved in our country since then, I think, but there is a long way to go.

You know what else I think? We need to keep our eyes on the Rock. That's the ONLY thing that never changes, keeps us grounded, protected, safe and secure. Take care, Linda. Susan

Mevely317 said...

What a wonderful share!
Your recollection of the children's red/white/blue paper chain brought tears to my eyes ...no doubt each of them still remember your invite to express their feelings.

PS - Ya, I'm a newbie here ...nudged this direction via Sandie at Chatty Crone ... but I'm looking forward to coming back often!

Myra
(aka Mevely317)

Debra Mayhew said...

I remember that day well... three little kids at home with me and all they wanted to do was watch their morning cartoon, but I couldn't turn the news off because I knew I was watching history being written. And later that night, people were panicking and piling up at the gas stations...but the thing I remember most is people everywhere joining together for candle-lit vigils and flags flying proudly on front porches. We were truly "united" states...And your act of patriotism was a beautiful one that helped many children, I'm sure.

Julia Gordon-Bramer said...

That day changed all of us.