9/11 Not Just Another Day

Fifteen years ago, the United States came under attack. It was the worst enemy attack ever to take place on U.S. soil. Nearly 3,000 people died. This day was a day that would be forever in our minds and hearts. 

    Around the world, on September 11th, all sorts of individuals marked the moments when each of the four planes crashed fifteen years ago with silence. Bells rang throughout many towns and cities to honor those who died during the attacks and in the two wars that followed. 

    Thousands of loved ones gathered this year on 9/11 in New York City at the site where the World Trade Center once stood. Many of those loved ones placed items such as flowers and pictures beside the bronze plaques where the names of those who died are engraved. Every year at the memorial site in NYC, hundreds of family members take turns reading from a list of the victims who died that day fifteen years ago. This year, the names of the 2,983 victims were read slowly by relatives as classical music played during the ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial plaza in lower Manhattan with pauses for six moments of silence.

    Four of those mark the exact times the four hijacked planes were crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon near Washington D.C., and a Pennsylvania field. The last two record when the North and South towers of the Trade Center crumpled.

    The ceremony was held by two reflecting pools with waterfalls that now stand in the towers’ former footprints, and watched over by an honor guard of police and firefighters. Many of the people who gathered at Ground Zero this year were there for the fifteenth time. Even though a decade and a half has passed since the attacks, many say the grief and the feeling of horror that befell the country that day will linger forever.

    Ask an anyone where he or she was when the Towers fell, and you’ll most likely get a reply with no hesitation. For people who were part of one of America’s darkest days, the answers are somber. Words are chosen very carefully, and the moments come out with cracked voices and tear-filled eyes. But their stories are full of survival and heroism, stories that still stand strong fifteen years later. 

    Most of the students here at Concord were young when 9/11 took place. I personally was 7 years old and in second grade. Another student, Maizy Landreth, was in Kindergarten. “I remember, sitting on the floor of my Kindergarten grade classroom watching Conjunction Junction when the phone rang and the school was placed on lock down. They came over the speaker telling us to take a moment of silence for the catastrophe that occurred this afternoon. At the time, we all whispered and giggled, not understanding why these things were happening. A fellow classmate, Tyler, had an aunt and uncle who lived in DC. Knowing this, he asked our teacher if his family was going to be okay. I will never forget the look of devastation on her face.” 

    Another student, Anja Barker, had another approach from the day of the attacks. Her father was in the U.S. military and was stationed in Afghanistan. “We lived in Fort Hood Texas and I was at school in the first grade classroom. When the first plane hit we were put on lock down and later my school received a bomb threat that made our parents come pick us up and sign us out. We didn’t get to talk to my dad that day but we did the next day and that was the day war began. When we called we heard nothing but bombs going off in the background and then his phone dropped the call.” 

    Carrie Jarrell, the Program Assistant to the CU Advancement Office, was older when 9/11 took place. “I was a student at Concord when I found out the first tower had been hit. I was in the hallway between classes and a friend told me. Later I was sitting down in Subway with friends watching the news and the events unfold. I remember just being numb and in complete shock it was happening.” 

    This year not only marks the fifteenth anniversary of the attacks on September 11th, but also this is the first year that kindergarten students in school will be taught about the events and were not alive during them. A  new wave of young people are learning about that day as a historical moment in time rather than recalling it personally. 

    Teachers in schools are approaching the history lesson with caution, and will not be showing gruesome pictures, videos, or having gruesome discussions. Speaking to a few teachers in Mercer County, who have chosen to stay anonymous, they have said that they will focus more on heroism and patriotism than they will the attack details. 

    Even though the day was tragic, students and faculty still left me with some insight that brought hope to the devastating events of September 11, 2001.

    “My support and heart goes out to all those lost and affected in these events, and my praise to those who helped, saved, and protected us then, today and in the future from future attacks.” - Maizy Landreth