Tomorrow marks the 7th Anniversary of 9/11. I can't believe it has been seven years. Seven years ago, I had just quit a perfectly good job that I had had for over 12 years and gone back to school to finish my degree. I had just been back a couple of weeks on the morning of September 11th. I didn't have to be at school until 12:30 and had just completed my daily run. I was ironing my clothes for the day while watching Good Morning American and then Peter Jennings came on to talk about the plane that had hit the North Tower near Times Square in New York. Pretty strange. . .but, at the time, there was only minimal speculation that it was terrorists. Then, while I watched, a second plane hit the South Tower. No further speculation needed. Numbly, I picked up my cell phone to make the last call I'd be able to make for a couple of days and called Pat. We talked for a few minutes and then went about our day. Thinking back, I don't know how I got through school that day. It wasn't until the afternoon that I had heard about the Pentagon (where a very good friend of ours worked at the time) and then later about the plane that went down in Pennsylvania. We live 13 miles from Dulles airport and the FAA Tower for the Mid-Atlantic is in Leesburg. . .one of the planes took off from Dulles. Perhaps you can imagine the shock and surprise and the feeling of impending change that was felt in our area. Perhaps you felt your own version.
Seven years later and nothing has really changed. And yet, so much has changed. . .
How does one discuss these kinds of issues with children? How does one discuss the troubles that exist between ones child's birth country with his or her new home country without being prejudiced? As a child of the Cold War, I find myself in a bit of a dilema regardless of how much I love Russia and her history. I don't want Aidan to feel hated. . .ever. He is too special for that. This will be a discussion to tread lightly with until he can fully understand it.
In the meantime, Aidan found a Corvette magazine and pulled it open to this page and showed it to me and said, "Mama! Look! Cool BB!" (BB is what he calls cars)
The kid has taste.
2 comments:
Hi Stacy, 9/11/01 - I had just moved from NY the year before to CT and I was working at Aetna. The guy working in the cube next to me said, hey, You're from NY, do you know anyone in the WTC? and I said, yes, why? and he said, Well, 2 planes just hit the WTC. I said, what do you mean?-Thinking of 2 little piper planes, and he said, American Airliners. I will never forget it!
Oh - and the kid definitely has taste- that is a cool car!
Take care...Teresa
That day will always be etched into my mind, since Todd was supposed to be at a meeting in those buildings on that very day. Thanks be to God that his schedule was changed just 2 days before and the meeting was scheduled for the 12th instead. I am truly thankful to God for saving us from that personally. Kendall does remember that day and what happened. She actually the day after drew a picture of 2 buildings and a fire and people jumping out of the buildings. I thought I had sheltered her from it, but she still got it at the age of 5. Amazing. We talk about it with Kendall and Tyler every year. I don't want them to hate a country for doing things, just to understand that there are many different people out there that have many ideas and religions that conflict with one another.
Aidan will NEVER feel any hatred from us! I really hope he never feels it from anyone. He is a human being just as anyone else. He is an American and Russian and we are so lucky to have him in our lives. I am certainly glad those men that day didn't take our hopes, dreams and freedom from us. I LOVE THE USA!!!
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