Tomorrow I teach, so today I remember.
Five years later and I remember. Everyone does. Many things have happened since then we have went to war in Iraq. In my opinion loosely based on the the events of 5 years ago, and a reference during a State of the Union address that there was intelligence to indicate that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase enriched uranium.
As a result more Americans have died in the two conficts that resulted from 9/11 then died in the terrorist attacks of 9.11.01 (in Iraq 2,666 soldiers have died and the 333 in Afghanistan, 2973 died that day).
It seems 9/11/01 was a bad day for the American Soldier.
Over 100,000 Iraqi’s are dead, most civilian, and 46,000 of them as a result of military intervention. It seems 9/11/01 was a bad day for Iraq as well.
I live in New York. I teach in New York. I watched the second tower go down five years ago tomorrow. People I grew up with died in the Towers that day. For me there is little else to say.
I remember being in the lunch room at my school, and my friend coming and telling me, ” they just hit the Pentagon”. Then I was told our fighter jets are shooting down hijacked planes in our skys. Thank god that was not true.
I remember saying to myself it is going to be a long day. It was. We were at school till 7:00 pm that day, while we waited for parents to come pick up their kids, who at best could not get home, and at worst were dead. I remember one of my collegues nearly got in a fist fight with a school bus drive who refused to wait after hours at our school, to take home kids who were waiting for there parents to finally get home.
In the weeks that followed when all the rumors, speculation, and outright lies cleared themselves up, we were left with the real story, and far more horrible than anything I could have imagined. I was left speechless. Everyone talked about this endlessly, and I had nothing to say. I remember driving around the city on 9/13 and it was a ghost town.
Tomorrow we will observe moments of silence for each of the attacks in my school.
8:46 Am the first plane Flight 11 hits the North tower.
At 9:03 the South Tower is hit by Flight 175.
9:37 Am Flight Crashes into the side of the Pentagon killing 125 people
10: 03 Flight 93 Crashes in to a field in Philadelphia
10: 28 Am North Tower Collapses
Five years later still I have nothing to say of much value. Except remember.
