Never Forget

Courtesy of the Associated Press

Tuesday September 11th, 2001 

 As I sat on the living room couch eating cereal and watching Pokemon, all I could think about was how badly I didn't want to go to school that day. Why couldn't I be like the kids in this show who went on wild adventures and never had to go to school? They were ten and I was ten, to me the world just didn't seem fair. Eventually Ash caught his Pokemon and beat Team Rocket which meant the bus would be coming any minute. I got up and changed the channel knowing that my mom would want to watch the weather before she left for work. Little did I know that the scene that would unfold before me would change the entire world forever.


The first image that came across the screen was a building billowing with smoke and a huge crater in its side. Through the smoke, fire, and screams the news anchors announced that a passenger jet had crashed into the World Trade Center. The news station then started a nearly continuously loop of amateur footage showing the airliner crashing into the building. It all seemed like some terrible accident, until the second plane hit. I watched, with one foot out the door and my bus driver honking at me, as the second plane crashed into the Twin Towers and in that moment I knew something horrible was happening.My mom then screamed at me not to miss the bus and I reluctantly tore my eyes away from the screen and rushed onto the bus. I tried to describe what I had seen to the bus driver but her reaction wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. Now after having the same bus driver for four years it was common knowledge that the woman hated me (and i do mean hate) but I did not expect her to tell me point blank that I was lying and that something like that couldn't happen. In her defense, before that day I think we all thought that it could never happen.

When I got to school I told my 5th grade teacher Mrs. Moke about what I had seen on TV and about my bus drivers reaction. She looked a little confused and also kind of skeptical but told me not to worry. Soon we were ushered off to Music class for our daily special, and the peppy Mrs. Abbot kept us entertained with a game of 'Button, Button, Whose got the Button". After class Mrs. Moke came and got us but before returning to our home room she pulled me aside. She told me that at first she didn't know what I was talking about but that she had found out about the attacks during Music class. She told me not to tell anyone in class and to keep it a secret. Then from down the hall a television clicked on in a nearby classroom and Mrs. Moke and I watched as two teachers stood watching it, each leaning on each other as the first tower fell. My only thought was how much those two ladies needed each other in that moment to stay standing as they silently cried and shook, and I think I knew then that the other tower, without its sister, was also doomed to fall. One just couldn't stand without the other.

Nine Years Later

Nine years to the day and the images of that day are as fresh in my mind as ever. In the weeks that followed the news aired countless hours of: video footage showing Towers collapsing, thousands of photographs of people fleeing the rubble, and the haunting playback from the doomed flight United 93. I thought that the tragedy of that day could be lost on no one and that those images would be forever burned into the collective American conscience much as it was burned into mine. But only too soon did I realize how easily America forgets. Just two years later, my middle school principal told a group of students and faculty that "9/11 happened two years ago. Isn't it time we forgot about it already." To me that still represents the single most heartless thing I have ever had the misfortune of hearing. It felt as cruel as a slap in the face and as gut wrenching as if he had just burned the American flag before my very eyes.

Now nine years later and not a single professor mentioned the atrocities of that day, nor did any class pay homage to those who lost their lives. I am truly disheartened to see just how quickly America will try to forget something it does not fully understand. America has forgotten the nearly 3,000 people killed that day, the countless brave Americans who sacrificed themselves in order to save others, and even the simply and sheer terror of the unknown. I wrote this post to remind my readers, to remind America, of this day. To remind America of the valor of the fire fighters who raced into a burning skyscraper never to come out again, of the brave passengers of United 93 who stopped a fourth attack from occurring, and to rekindle the feeling of unity that pervaded the entire world. On September 11th, 2001 the United States wept and the rest of the world was there to dry our tears. So please, I beg you. Never forget.

Cody

p.s. While looking online I came across this photo and for some unknown reason the power behind it captured my mind and I feel like it embodies this entire post better than any words ever could.

Courtesy of the Associated Press