September 11, 2011 Birmingham, AL Even as a young boy I can recall hearing adults mull over the question, "Where were you when JFK was shot?". The relevance of a persons location at the moment of discovery used to be trivial to me. I wasn't around on that tragic day when America watched her President fall victim to political hatred, so it seemed a little difficult to understand the emotional relevance to "where were you?".
On September 11, 2001, Americans awoke with a routine sense of safety that has since--never returned.
I was teaching at Cory Middle School, in Gadsden Alabama on that morning. It was a pleasant morning, one easily remembered from the frequent recollections of the events that unfolded hour by hour on that day. Cheryl Taylor, a teacher across the hall, interrupted the class with a knock on the door and a sense of panic. "Turn your TV on! A plane has crashed into the world trade center!" she said.
Within seconds, over 30 students and I watched the screen as chaos began to unravel before our eyes. Billowing from one of the towers was a stream of smoke, and you could sense that more was to follow. Across America, the workday ceased as we all were captivated of what horrors fell before our eyes. We no longer felt safe. We called loved ones. And as planes fell from our skies on that day, we wondered who was responsible for such an awful crime.
I remember turning the volume down with that class and we began a discussion. "The world as you know it, will be different from now on." We had been attacked by a "faceless coward" and those of us who watched our television screens on that morning knew this was just the beginning...including those innocent 7th and 8th grade students.
I remember where I was. I remember how helpless I felt as I watched lives extinguished beneath the ashes of a 100 story building. I remember wanting justice.
In the summer of 2010, I was fortunate to visit the lower Manhattan and take a tour of that tragic site. I was with a few other teachers and about 30 students who were only a few years old when the planes struck. I watched as they were engulfed with the stories from an audio tour that took us from place to place. It was then, I realized a sad truth. This is the only world they have ever known. September 11th has always been a part of their vocabulary. Many don't understand the horrors most of us have experienced because sadly, it is all they have ever known.
To those who enter buildings that go ablaze, we salute you. To those who fight a war, ensuring that the attacks on American soil cease to exist, we salute you. To those who's families were rocked by the tragedies that unfolded on that horrible day, we mourn with you.
And to the young people now who hear the world speak of, "where we were" on that day, and fail to understand it's significance, we pray that you will never have to turn on the TV to the news of some awful tragedy and watch a new generation grow, amid the fears of terror.
God Bless America
Robert Abernathy
