September the 11th

September the 11th.

When one hears that phrase there is no need to add any explanation, much as June the 6th, or Hitler, or even some of the other words and phrases that exist in our vocabulary now that didn't exist then, such as Facebook or Google.

But this carries so much more to the people of today who only understand the earlier ones in history books or old movies being remade. I write this as I watch the tributes on television this morning and wipe the tears off my face, remembering just as vividly the feelings I felt that beautiful breezy morning ten years ago. I had sent my beautiful daughter off to school and was at home recuperating from a recent accident that was interfering from work duties, and had decided to turn on the television to catch up on the daily news. Like many, the view was of the first tower on fire and all the confusion as the newscasters were trying to determine what had caused this incident, and was staring at the screen when I clearly saw the second plane crash into the other tower. I immediately called my father to make sure he was watching the news and then can't remember the next time I left the television over the coming hours.

My daughter tells me that she learned of the terrorist attacks because her class was walking by the principal's open door of her office as several teachers and the principal were glued to the television in her office and expressing their own fear, which led to her own. As a mother (and a clinical social worker), of course my anger with the school was very high when I learned that they handled that so poorly with the children, but my job was to be a calm, reassuring mother when she came home that evening. I can remember that CNN actually had a professional on in the midst of the crisis of the day who told us parents that one of the worst things we could do was to keep the television flooded with the images of the plane crashes day and night. So, when she got home that night I asked her what she knew, and what she wanted to know. We knelt in our living room floor and prayed for everyone, later watched President Bush speak to the country, and then I made it my mission to make my daughter feel as safe as she could in a world that had just turned upside down.

My father began wearing a flag button on his shirt within a couple days of September the 11th.

He still wears it every day.