On this day.

Ten years ago today, I woke up to get ready for school. I was in the Fourth grade, and so young. I always got dressed and put my schoolbag together before going upstairs to eat my breakfast cereal and make my lunch. Coming up the stairs I found out that there was something exciting playing on the TV in Dad's room that had distracted everyone else from getting ready for school. That meant it was super exciting and I was very curious as to what it was. I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing on the TV. There was a grainy portion of video footage and then an animated replay to show what happened. I didn't understand what was happening and I thought it was just a movie.
And then a second plane hit the other tower. And we were watching people try to evacuate in such a panic. On that TV, I even saw people jumping out the windows. I still didn't understand that those were real people jumping from such heights that it killed them only because they thought they had a better chance than running down the stairs. I have been told that for some of the people they did have a better chance in those impossible leaps.
The video feed continued and the towers collapsed one after the other. And there was news that a plane had taken out part of the Pentagon. And then there was a Forth plane that had crashed near a place called "Camp David." No one was quite sure what was happening, but they were looking for these things called "black boxes" that all airplanes had and were surely indestructible and contained video and sound recordings. And at some point I found that what was on the TV was really happening. I'm not sure whether or not I got to see it all live but I saw so much of it.
And so I learned that there were such places called "The Pentagon," "The World Trade Center," and "Camp David" just minutes after those people called "terrorist"(I had not heard of them either) attacked them. The younger children will learn of these events second hand and will have no recollection of them for themselves. And maybe in a few years that students will begin to lose interest in those events just as we tuned out so much of our history classes*. I suppose that I can be sure most of the children in Forth grade were only just born that year. Some of them may even be celebrating their birthdays today, not quite understanding why the adults all seem sad or treat their day with such graveness.
When I got to school that morning, I looked to the Principle Mr. Eric for advice. He was only and elementary school teacher but everyone looked upon him as such a wise man. When some one had vandalized the school earlier in the year, we all looked to him and asked him how to respond to such things. He told us that we should not acknowledge such things. The bad people who had done the vandalism just wanted attention and were probably hiding among the rocks of the hill that over looked the school. However, he had such opposing advice on the morning this specific narrative takes place. That morning he told that we should talk about the horrible things that had happened. We should show those bad people that they cannot stop us, and will not discourage us. He also told us it was healthy to share our feeling about these things. I don't remember anything else from that day. I don't remember if the classes were half empty, only that they weren't canceled. I don't recall how my teachers or the other adults in my life reacted. The last memory I can share about that event is this: we lived near two airports and under several common flight routes. Every night as I went to bed I would hear airplanes go over head and would be filled with fear that one of those planes would target my house or my school. It took me some time to convince myself of the logic that there wasn't anywhere in Mesa that would make a good target. (I had overheard that from some adults, but I don't recall who. Maybe God managed that so I would feel less fear...)

We have not forgotten.

Surely, you say, this blog is about the happenings during Dawna's time in AIM! Why should she write about such things? Then I must reply that this collections of words contains not just stories of my activities, but my thoughts and feelings also. Today, although I am in a country far away, join my fellow Americans in remember those we lost. When I was very little. I remember hearing that everyone who was alive at the time would always remember the day Kennedy was assassinated. I knew that such a phenomenon could only be caused by a true tragedy I never thought that such a thing could happen in my life. But we find that it did.
This make me wonder if the same was true about the death of Christ. Surely such a scene was etched into the minds of his followers at the very least. In light of that it wouldn't be hard to blame Thomas for wanting more proof when the others told him that they had seen Jesus alive and well again. It would be like hearing that the towers suddenly rose back up again and all those who were lost were found sitting at their desks in perfect health!

Thank you for reading though this special post. We will continue back to our normal posts soon!

God Speed.

* Not me of course. I loved learning history and never took my eyes off teacher except to take notes. :P