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.