Ten Years Later- September 11, 2001 Tribute

This week in class we spent our time watching a documentary on a person who had just become a firefighter. He was not experienced with his work yet and was still trying to get to know all the guys in at the fire station. This person who was filming for a documentary did not purposefully go on September 11, 2001 to the twin towers after a tower was hit by an airplane to be able to say that he got the inside look of what was going on. He was thinking that he was getting footage for his documentary. After watching this documentary it made me think back ten years ago to this date. The room was quiet after we watched the documentary and the first thing that I could even think was, “wow.” I don’t know how else to put it. I was in second grade when the twin towers were targeted by planes and I do not remember anything. I don’t even recall anything even happening on that day. That makes me feel bad inside because I think that I should have known what was going on. Those brave firemen went out there and knew that they were risking their lives and that they would probably not come back alive, and yet they wanted to go back and find survivors. In a way though, I thank my mother from protecting me and shielding me from images and news reports that were happening on the television that day because what eight year old needs to worry?  I don’t see why a parent would want their child to know that there are evil people out there in the world that do not have a care for who they hurt and why. There was one line from the documentary that I keep remembering that was said, “I didn’t know how evil, evil could be until this day.” When that line was said, all I could think about was that on this day, ten years ago our nation’s innocence has just been ripped away from us and thrown back in our faces.  America is not as safe as we think it is. And that is such a scary thought to think. This event that took place opened our eyes and our awareness that there is pain and suffering; and there was so much pain and suffering on 9/11.  

            James Barron wrote a very touching article called A Day that Stands Alone. In the article he put into perspective of how many hours have gone by since September 11, 2001. 87,648 hours, 5,258,880 minutes, and 315,532,800 seconds. That is crazy to think about all the time that has gone by. In the article Barron talks about how there was an unconfirmed intelligence tip that Al Qaeda was plotting to interrupt the ten year mark. The first thing that popped into my head is, “you have got to be kidding me” Even if it is just a possibility, that is frightening and scary to think that Al Qaeda is finding pleasure in hurting us. I do not comprehend how their mind works like that. How could anyone want to purposefully hurt those who did nothing wrong? James Barron wrote about how there were long moments of silence on the hours that the planes crashed and when the towers fell. Leon E. Panetta said, “There are no words to ease the pain that you still feel” and that is upsetting because I know that he is right. No matter what anyone says to try to make families who lost loved ones, or anyone who lost anyone, it’s disappointing to think that you can’t do anything but listen to them hurt. During the ceremony they used silver bells at ground zero to remember the passengers in the planes. One thing that this article talked about is how the twin towers took 60 years to complete. And to think that they crumbled in seconds is a miserable feeling. And to think that ten years ago it was just another morning, it’s unbelievable to me. I learned something new from this article. I had no idea that a week after the September 11 attacks, letters killed 5 people and infected other because they contained anthrax. That sort of feels like a slap in the face, because I open mail every day and I do not even think to be cautious that something harmful could be in them. This article was very moving and touching for me.

            For the past 10 years of my life, I don’t exactly know what kind of impact that it has had on my life. To be honest, before this week in class I never really thought much about 9/11 and all that it did to our Nation; and after watching the documentary and watching all the news specials this week on T.V, it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I have so much empathy for those who now have to suffer from this tragic event. I always knew that it had happened, and that it had hurt a lot of people, but I never really took the time to really think about it. I don’t think I want to give myself that chance to think about it because it’ll bring fear to me. I loved watching the documentary in class, but at the same time I hated it. It’s hard to explain. This idea of fear- I never really had to fear for my life until I watched all these documentaries. So, I feel I am not doing justice for honoring those who have died just because I pay tribute for a week, because as time goes by, I’ll start going back to living life how it was before. For those who actually lost someone, my God they have to live with that every day of their lives. I’ve only experienced one death, and I knew that it was coming. These people who died on 9/11, the only thing they did wrong that day was go to work, but no one knew that it was coming. I went to church this morning on the ten year mark for 9/11, and there was a special part of the mass where the choir sang “Amazing Grace” in honor to those who lost their lives, and there was this woman in the pew diagonal from me. She was dressed in black, and had on black sunglasses, and a black hat. As the choir started to sing, I could see tears streaming down her face. It clicked in my mind that she must have some personal connection to the events that took place on that day.  No one was sitting next to her and she looked so upset. I remembered that I had my purse with me and my mother gave me a small bag of Kleenex over the summer (which I never opened) and I went up to the woman, placed my had on her shoulder and gave her my bag of Kleenex because I felt that she needed them more than I ever would. I sat next to this woman, who I never met in my life just looking at her with such sadness. What could I do? I rubbed her back, but that doesn’t take the hurt away. We didn’t even speak to each other. When the song ended she turned to me and she told me thank you. Her thank you made me feel so much sadness for this day. I returned to my seat, but I kept looking at that woman because I wanted to make sure that she was okay. I don’t even know her name. She left before mass ended so I couldn’t go and talk to her. Last Friday our teacher asked us what we would do to honor those who died on 9/11, and I wrote that I didn’t know what I could do to make a difference and all I could think of at the time was write a poem and say a prayer; but at that moment when I was in church, I only hope that I brought a smile to that one person’s gloomy day.

Do Students Have the Freedom of Speech?

This week in my Issues class we discussed this idea of whether or not students in a school settings have all the rights they like the think they do; for instance, their freedom of speech. People tend to believe that they have this right to say whatever they want whenever they want. But, does this really give people the right to scream, “Fire” in a crowded movie theater when there isn’t one? Well, yes they can say this, but I believe that they will have to deal with the consequences of their choices that they made. This idea of being able to say what you want, but then having to have to deal with the punishment is crucial because people have to look at the intent behind peoples actions. In one particular case I looked at the different sides of whether or not the First Amendment protects a student’s right from displaying messages promoting the use of illegal drugs at a school supervised event. This was the Morse v Frederick case. A student in Juneau, Alaska, when given the chance to attend the grounds to watch the Olympic torch being carried through the streets of Salt Lake City with his school; he chose to unfold a banner that read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” as a camera was passing them he would not take it down when asked to do so. Morse ended up ripping the banner down and giving him a 10 day suspension.

My first reaction to reading about this case in class was this is typical teenage behavior and Frederick is trying to get attention. Frederick even admitted the only reason he did what he did, was so that he could get on television. Well, that does not give him the right to do that just because he wants too. While his intent might have only been to get on the T-V, this put the school it a very hard position in whether to take action or to step down. The question of whether the school should have taken any action because they were not actually at school raises lots of concern. The courts believed that because it was a school sponsored event and there were teachers there, the school has every right to take action to discipline Frederick. I agree, I believe that if Frederick were to get off the hook, that he would not learn any respect and that the school would also be representing that they think it is okay to use drugs. No school wants to have that kind of reputation. Parents care about were their kids go to school, and if they were to go to a school where the principle did not take actions to say that promoting illegal drugs was not okay, what kind of message would that be sending to the parents? Not a good not. It would not look professional.

In this case I believe that the actions that were taken to restrict his right to freedom of speech were appropriate because Frederick was not acting proper and was promoting the use of drugs that are not allowed. There is a certain respect that students need to show their teachers in order to get it back, and Frederick is clearly not showing it. Why should he get off the hook for his actions if he is not going to get anything back? While there are some instances where I think that freedom of speech is a good thing, this is not one of those instances and the court’s final decision was fitting for the circumstances.

Memorizing Poems

This time of year, people are starting up with the new school year and there are all sorts of stresses going on. Over the summer I was told by my teacher for AP English that I had to chose a poem of at least fourteen lines to memorize and then I would have to perform it to the class. Now, this was not all the homework that I had to do over the summer, a fraction; the part that I was looking forward too. There are so many different poems that I could have chosen and for some reason, I was drawn to a poem called "Like The Water" by Wendell Berry.This poem goes like this;

Like the water
Of a deep stream
Love is always to much
We did not make it
Though we drink till we burst
We can not have it all
or want it all
In its abundance
It survives our thirst.

In the evening we come down to the shore
to drink our fill
and sleep
while it flows
through the regions of the dark
it does not hold us
except we keep returning to its rich waters
Thirsty.

We enter
willing to die
into the commonwealth of its joy.

I was really excited about picking out my poem, and I thought that if I picked this poem, then people could get a glimpse of how I feel about certain things. Picking a poem is very difficult because when you memorize it, it becomes a part of you. Once you have memorized the poem you carry that poem with you where ever you go, you some how own that poem now. Something about having the words in your own blood stream fascinates me. Other people do not know my poem that I have to recite for the class. That is something special to me. Alberto Manguel's once said, Whenever you read a book and come across any wonderful phrases which you feel stir or delight your soul, don't merely tust the power of your own intelligence, but force yourself to learn them by heart and make them familiar..." (Manguel 63). People tend to overlook this and forget to slow down and remember things. This makes for everyday life a little different. When people say things to me, I really try to hear what it is that they are saying to me, and I try to see what it is that they are saying because I want to understand and know what the person means when someone says somthing that stirs with me.

Blogs For You To Look At

Dear Mr. Kramer,


I would like you to look at Blog # 1 and my Blog # 9. I think that with both of these I master what my first thoughts on the story were and important details in the story. I also used key text evidance to support what I was talking about. I also made some connections to what I learned in class and key ideas came out in my blogs. These ones were my best I think.

Blog #9 Diane Romano / Larry Heineman

            For my last blog I decided to go with Diane Romano’s story from the Studs Terkel Book. I chose this as my first story that I read because as I was looking at the different stories I could read I saw that under race there was a story called a white mother of six children. I thought that it was strange because when I thought of race, I thought of blacks and their stories and how race affected their lives. I had to read the story, and after reading the story, the whole idea of having sympathy for the blacks, but then working in a place where it makes it so much more difficult to not judge another color to me seemed so complex and Diane seemed to be lost and didn’t know what to do. In the story Diane talked about how she had sympathy for the blacks. She’ll, “…go march with them if it’s something big. [She doesn’t] use the term “nigger” in the house, and [she] never allow[ed] it” (Terkel 459). That just seemed so big of her because most white people at the time were so against the blacks and disrespected them. However, Diane did start working to find crooks and criminals. It made it difficult to keep her beliefs of blacks being treated equally and them not being any different, difficult. Diane stated, “It’s a shame to say it, but quite a few of these are black people. They seem like they’re all involved with the negative part of living: cheating, lying, stealing, dope, that type of thing” (Terkel 461). That contradicts what she was saying at the very beginning when she said that she would support them. Diane is being influenced by the work that is being done around her. What she fails to realize is that, those crooks and criminals are just a small fraction of the entire African-American race and she is letting it get to her head. Her job must be extremely stressful and take a toll on her morals and her beliefs as she works. When Diane said, “I think it’s going to take another hundred years, maybe two hundred, before the feeling of white superiority goes-this feeling against blacks, against Mexicans, against Orientals. Because they’re different than us” (Terkel 466). I think that she is on to something. Whites have it in their mind set that they are superior and better than everyone else around them. Even in today’s society the whites are wanting to be superior and there are stereotypes of Mexicans and people of different races other than whites. I don’t think this idea of being on top of everyone else is ever going to go away, but I think that it won’t be as big as time goes on. Back when we were learning about Black History we saw that the Whites wanted to have the upper hand and that they felt what ever they did they could.  People are afraid of change, and they are afraid of those who might come out on top of them, so they do what ever they can to make them fall to the ground. It’s natural instinct. That feeling is never going to go away because we’re all humans. How people respond to other peoples actions though are going to be different.

            The second story that I chose was Larry Heinemann’s. I chose this story because as I was looking at the list again I thought that I should read a story about Vietnam War Veteran. I would get to hear about his War stories and what it was like for him to fight in Vietnam. I was not exactly told war stories, but more I was told how the war affected him at home after. In the summer of 1968 Larry got a job as a CTA bus driver. He had returned from Vietnam and he thought that it was the worst decision he had ever made because he was so used to driving around with a .45 and a shot gun. The roads were to themselves. Now, as a bus driver he would have to interact with different people, people who irritate him, and other people on the street. “The only thing they teach about bus driving is that you’re a public servant, okay? Any asshole with a fare can give you shit and you have to sit there and take it” (Terkel 417-18). That was not how Larry was used to doing things. If anyone gave him a hard time he would throw them off the bus. The affects of war and what they do to a person. I think that Larry’s perspective of the real world and how people act are being affected by his memories that happened at Vietnam and what is happening as he is a bus driver is he is putting his guard up, because that’s what he had to do when he was in Vietnam. Like when he was near Lincoln park there were cop cars and kids and he stopped the bus until the smell of carbon died down and the passengers were hollering at him to go on, but he kept saying no “You don’t want to get a snort of that tear gas, it’ll make you sick…I fully expected people were gonna get killed” (Terkel 418). That kind of fear in the world shows how going to war has a toll on people when they return. Those passengers did not even think twice before asking Larry to go back driving. But Larry was hesitant. When Larry talks about the Vietnam Veterans’ Parade and how it is supposed to be remembered as a positive experience he said, “They wanted so hard for it to be all right. It’s not. It’s going to be an evil thing in our lives and nothing’s gonna change it” (Terkel 420). That is something I did not expect him to say. When we were taught about Vietnam and about the memorial that was set up for them, it is supposed to be a good thing, and something to honor the soldiers, but in Larry’s mind it’s not. That just surprised me because I was thinking that he would be grateful for it. If you are in the war though, I think there is a different point of view on weather or not what the government and people do to show respect towards a war is sufficient enough or not though, and in Larry’s mind, it wasn’t.

Blog #8 Dolores Dante / Phil Stallings

Dolores Dante-

           Dolores Dante worked as a waitress as a way to get “fast cash.” Her husband left her with lots of debts and three children. Dolores loved her job still and was never feeling shame towards it. In-fact, this job helped her pay off the debts and make it alright at home. However, she could not stray from the fact that, “everyone says all waitresses have broken homes” (Terkel 329). Dolores makes the point though that people have broken homes because they need to make money quickly to do work, not the other way around. Dolores said, “I have to be a waitress. How else can I learn about people? How else does the world come to me? I can’t go to everyone. So they have to come to me” (Terkel 330). It is almost as if Dolores has doubts when she says this. She says that she is proud to be a waitress, yet here it seems as if she almost wishes she wasn’t a waitress and doesn’t like the idea of it; like she has lost all other hope and dreams of getting money to support her family that she would resort to doing waitressing. Dolores made sure that she pleased everyone by giving them compliments, and she rearranged food in specific ways to help with its appeal, she wanted to make a good impression on people. Dolores talked about how people say that there is no good work done anymore and she said that she didn’t believe it. I strongly agree with her statement. She states, “The man at the top, who says the people beneath him are not doing a good job. He’s the one who always said, “you’re nothing.’…if it weren’t so demeaning, why didn’t she do it?” (Terkel 334). She worked her self so hard to get people to respect her, and people started to get jealous of her. Because of her jealousy, thoughts of guilt started to creep on her, but she still kept going. She served her neighborhood well, and herself with pride and dignity. That’s what hard work is all about.

            In the story of Phil Stallings I got a different kind of feeling from this story than the last one that I read. This one, Phil did not seem to care much about his job, and really disliked it. Phil said, “I stand in one spot, about two- or three feet area, all night. The only time a person stops is when the line stops. We do about thirty two jobs per car, per unity….”(Terkel 354-55). This kind of job does not seem to be communicative like Dolores is and Phil does not get to express his feelings about how he feels about certain situations because of the working conditions he is working in. Phil did not like the intimidation or the pressure that came with his job; he especially did not like having to have to go up to someone of greater power to ask to do something because he was petrified that they would ignore him or make him hold it. The working environment is much different from Dolores in the since that she got to interact with her community and get to know people why Phil never got that chance because he was to scared to do it. When Phil talks about the foremen, I start to feel sorry for him and what he had to deal with. “When a man becomes a foreman, he has to forget about even being human, as far as feelings are concerned. You see a guy there bleeding to death. So what, buddy? That lines gotta keep goin’’” (Terkel 357). This kind of treatment is not right, and it made me think back to a video we watched in class when a group of women working inside a sweat shop got locked in when a fire started and they jumped out of the window and died. That kind of working conditions and how bad they are and how the bad working conditions have such a negative effect on your morale and outcome of life.

            From these two posts it made me think a lot about the working life and the kind of environment that I want my life to be in. I want to be an English teacher, and I want the kids the be in a safe and fun learning environment. I don’t want them to feel like Phil, where they are restricted and feel like they can’t express themselves. I want to be proud of my job just like Dolores was, even if other people think I'm crazy for wanting to teach english.

Blog # 7 Florence Scala / Tom Kearney

 In the story of Florence Scala she grew up around Hull House. Florence talks about how she loved the excitement of the city but that she also felt a detachment to the city as well. She grew up poor and talked about how, "you cannot have the nice rich people on top passing on a program for the poor, because they simply don't understand, they can't understand" (Terkel 230) this is something that I think has been a problem for a very long time- the rich having more power over the poor. That has a direct correlation to today's society when people think that they are more worthy than others. When people are rich they tend to make people feel in-superior and that is the feeling that I got from Florence when reading this. One line that sticks out to menus when Florence says, "I don't believe so much anymore. I don't believe so much in people as I used to. I believe in some people but not in all people anymore...I have to be careful about this business of believing in all people"(Terkel 234) when a person grows up poor it makes them think about who they can trust and when things : such as when the Board of Trustee's decided to take more land- like that happen, it does cause a person to become more aware of their surroundings. I think that has to do with real life too. You cannot go around trusting everyone because then some people are going to take you for granted and that's not fair to yourself.

In the story of of Tom Kearney I really liked the lay of this story. It was different from the other ones we've read so far in the sense that it was a question and answer type story. Tom was a police man and i thought that it was really neat to see a perspective from him and what he thought about race and what he thought about change. Those were the two things that I pulled out of this story. Was that the times are changing from when he was a child. "it's changing rapidly. Look at the city. Of course everyone resists change good or bad" (Terkel 266). My question for you guys is do you think that change is a bad thing? In the sense of society and technology. That is something that is always changing and affecting people and the way that they act. When Tom talks about change he talks about he has colored friends but that he doesn't know what they think of him. That is something that I've never thought of. What the other side of the view is on this situation. When Tom was at a party he was talking with a black women and she told him, "you're my Caucasian enemy" (Terkel 268). That surprised me because I would never think that a black would say that. I don't know why I think that, maybe it's because when learning about the way whites treated the blacks and how innocent the blacks were it just seems weird to me that they would say something like that. What was your reaction when reading that part of the story? Did you have a different reaction?