24 years on, this is what comes to mind as we look back on that horrible day....
Those of you who are educators and or teachers would probably speak better to this, but my understanding is that it’s usually 11th grade/ junior year of high school where American history is taught. I know that’s where I was taught American history and also last year when Timmy was a junior is where he was taught American history.
It was towards the end of the last school year when Tim was coming home talking about how his class was learning about September 11. He told me what he learned and also had questions about what I remember from that day.
I was thinking about it. My junior year of high school was 1989–1990. Subtract 24 years from that and you’re talking about 1966–1967, The heart of the Vietnam war.
In 1990, the Vietnam war was probably still fresh for anyone who was alive during that time. Obviously in my family it was still very much fresh in our minds.
For those of us who are alive on 9/11, it almost seems surreal that now it’s being taught in history classes.
Instead of textbooks, it's iPads and Chromebooks. And you wonder if what are on those devices can do justice to what those of us who were alive were feeling that day, and the days that followed.
I was always told by people who were around on 11/22/1963 about how the country just went dead silent after JFK was killed. So many times, people said to me "You wouldn't understand it, unless you were there."
Of course, the technology was a lot more advanced in 2001 than it was in 1963. There are tons more video, photography and audio on 9/11. From all different views and vantage points.
But even with all that, you wonder.
In fairness, our kids have never known what life was like before 9/11. They didn't have the luxury of thinking something like that could never happen, the way many of us thought. For them it's been a part of their lives, having to get searched going to a ballgame, or having to go through a full body metal detector at the airport.
Next year, it will be a full quarter century since 9/11/01. So much has happened, so much has changed since then. And yet, it still seems like yesterday. Because it affected all of us so much, and with the possible exception of the pandemic, altered our lives more than anything else. So many who lost family and friends that day are still grieving. The names will all be read again this morning. For those of us who lived through it, we will feel the hurt, the sorrow and the anger all over again.
And in classrooms all over the country, kids who were born years afterwards will be taught about it. They'll learn who did it and about the changes that happened and the battles that were fought to bring the terrorists to justice.
And maybe they will understand how truly awful it was. But maybe there are no words or books or lessons that can capture that.
And hopefully, they will never have to experience anything like it ever.
God Bless those we lost that day, and those that were left behind.
God Bless all those who have died of sicknesses they developed while digging through the rubble.
May God Bless our children and protect them so that they never have to experience anything like this.
And May God Bless America
Weekly Mail returns on Sunday
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