9/11/01: Where were you?
September 9, 2011
On 9/11/01, I was in Indianapolis, enjoying the last few days of summer vacation before heading back for my sophomore year of college. In an attempt to be nice, I offered to drive my younger sister, a high school junior at the time, to school. We started arguing in the way only teenagers could, grasping at the most hateful words in our arsenal and lobbing them at one another, our voices carrying over the NPR program that was blaring on the car radio. Once we were at the school, she got out of the car and slammed the door.
There I sat in the car, picking up a few words from the radio as I tried to calm down: a plane had crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center… an accident… more news to come. Scary stuff, perhaps a drunken accident — none of the NPR reporters seemed to know what was going on, but things seemed manageable. I arrived home just before the second tower was struck. For the rest of the day, I sat with my Grandmother glued to CNN, trying to make sense of the tragedy. By the time my sister was back at home, both towers had fallen. We sat together in shock with our family, having forgotten whatever it was we had said to each other that morning.
I am fortunate that I didn’t lose anyone on that tragic day, but looking back, we all lost something. As Americans, we had become so accustomed to an unshakeable sense of security. Much of that was taken away on 9/11/01. In its place, we are left with the memory of where we were when we learned that those two planes crashed into the towers. In this sorrow, there is a common bond that has formed within all of us. As a tribute to those we lost that day, I hope we can foster that bond and move forward to create a world of understanding, trust and steadfast patience so that we may never have to live through a day such as that again.
Where were you on 9/11/01? What did you learn? The Feeding America national office shares our stories in the video below.
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[...] 9/11/01: Where Were You? from the Feeding America Blog – we’re all thinking about this (many have been ever since it happened). Feeding America has put together this touching and introspective collection of memories from its national office staff. [...]
Posted by What We’re Reading, Sept. 9th | Unconventional Wisdom – The Tuvel Communications Blog | September 9, 2011 at 2:38 PM
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