I spent the last three days with friends I’ve known since kindergarten-Jan and Dawn. As one might expect, the time was spent laughing, catching up, talking politics/spirituality and religion/family/sports – okay, they talked sports and I listened. As Dawn told Hubby, we were on the deck in the rain solving the world’s problems.
No matter when we get together, we always end up reminiscing about our hometown (we each believe that despite its flaws, we grew up in a great small town), about our classmates (always fondly), and about our school years (mostly fondly). This time we brought up a junior high American History teacher, Mr. Todd, and lamented the fact we never got past WWII in his class.
Saturday evening Dawn asked if she and Jan were going to get a sneak peek at today’s blog post about 9-11, and I had to admit I’d not even given it any thought. Part of that being the last several weeks have been such a blur I honestly wasn’t aware of the date coming up. But as I thought more about it, another part was not knowing what I could write that hasn’t already been written. Those two realizations were unsettling.
Was I becoming nonchalant about a significant event in history, one that I’d witnessed?
Then last night, 60 Minutes showed an updated version of an earlier episode on 9-11, focusing on the Fire Department of New York. Watching the footage again brought back the memory and emotions of that day; where I was, the disbelief, the tightness in my chest, the concern for friends in the military and a cousin who was a commercial airplane pilot. But this time it also made me think of watching newsreels showing WWII soldiers landing on the shores of Normandy.
It was a weird sensation watching the 9-11 footage in the context of 22 years later. There was the acute awareness that even though my children were alive at the time and they remember, September 11 is more history than memory for them. For today’s students it’s all history, just like WWII is for my classmates and me.
I thought about my Uncle Roy who was part of that D-Day invasion and imagined if we were to watch those newsreels together, how differently we’d be affected. Actually, he’d not be able to watch them because they’d bring back too many horrible memories, memories he refused to talk about. I imagine there are many who respond to 9-11 images in the same way.
On the show, reporter Scott Pelley interviewed surviving members of the FDNY, and one, Regina Wilson, talked about her fear that 9-11, all the heroism, and all the lives lost will be reduced to a page in the history books that one simply turns; that eventually the heroes and lives lost will be forgotten. Was my initial reaction to Dawn’s question a sign of that for me, that the impact of the day was fading?
I did a quick Facebook scroll this morning and there were fewer Trade Tower posts than in years past. I understand it’s been 22 years and we can’t/shouldn’t dwell in that place of grief, but at the same time it’s been only 22 years. I know there are thousands of photos from September 11, 2001, and there are books dedicated to the day, and the weeks and months following; but how many pages in school history books are focused on the event? What few selected images are used in an attempt to convey all the horrors and emotions of that day? To convey all the grace and goodness that came that day, and in the weeks and months following?
I have an American History book published in 2003. It was published by National Geographic so the pictures are beautiful and it’s very well put together, but there’s only one paragraph about the attack on the World Trade Center, a one paragraph personal profile on Todd Beamer, and two photos of the burning towers, then the narrative goes right into several pages on the War on Terrorism–unlike the four chapters and seventy-two pages focused on World War II. I understand history classes can’t do a deep dive into everything, but less than a one-page account of one of the most horrendous events in our history seems neglectful and dangerous. Mr. Todd might even agree.
A friend posted that her son’s high school was doing a special commemoration today. May that be the case for many schools. May more recent textbooks have a fuller overview of the events of September 11.
Maybe that’s all this post is about–to not forget. That even though there’s nothing new to write, we remember and share our memories so Regina Wilson’s fears don’t come true.
Today I’ll sit a few minutes with this book, read some of the brief bios of those who perished, and remember.
A Writer's Window 