Remembering

        After all last week, and then yesterday's 10th anniversary, I feel like recording this memory and response as a part of my posts.  I have talked with colleagues, read so many other blogs, like Stacey of Two Writing Teachers blog, and Deb of Coffee With Chloe, read the Caldecott winner of 2004, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein, and watched too much television about that day and the years since.   As are most everyone I hope, we are remembering… each in his or her own way according to the personal losses we experienced. I did not lose a loved one, but have in other wars, and I know I will never forget that day. I am sad for those who remember their loved ones who died this day, and send my prayers for them. 
       My personal loss is that of knowing what America was like before, and what it has become because of that day. My grandson was only a few weeks old & I grieved for his loss too. I still worry about those who feel that a little security is worth giving up some freedom.  As Benjamin Franklin said so many years ago in a time of anxiety, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." I don't like to take off my shoes in airports, and I don't like that others watch people whom they think are acting nervously.  Anne Frank said,  "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart," and I believe that too, and want my grandchildren to believe it.
           I taught that day, and remember that by afternoon most of my parents had come to stay with us in the classroom, or visited back & forth between one child and another in our school. We listened to the radio, tried to learn what was happening (remember these are middle school students), tried to talk about the terrorists and why, gave a lot of hugs, saw a lot of tears. Parents helped immensely & one was on the staff of one of the Denver papers, called us & told us what he knew. It was a very long day. Before we left each other, we made plans for the next day, tried to show students that we would have the next day. At lunch I managed to call my husband, my mother & my children to talk a little, to see how they were. I couldn’t wait to get home to watch television, to make sense if I could of what was happening. I just wanted to sit with my husband, to be quiet & still, try to take in the day.  I did, and nothing has been just the same since.