Dear People of the Future,
There
are moments in history during your formative years in all generations where one
can recall every waking detail of a certain triumph or tragedy. For example,
the JFK assassination, when we landed on the moon, when the Berlin Wall fell,
and for my generation, when 9/11 happened. I was fifteen years old, a sophomore
in high school. I had stayed home that morning because I was up all night
working on an art project and my mom had let me sleep in. I was eating
breakfast and watching T.V. in the back room, when my program was interrupted.
All of a sudden, I saw a plane crash into one of the World Trade Center
buildings. Later, I would find out, it was in live time and it was the second
plane that had crashed. I was seeing bodies fall from the building and tears
started streaming down my face. I was stunned and speechless. I did not know
what else to do but call my mom into the room. She was on the phone with my grandma
and she told her to quickly turn on her TV.
The
next thing I knew, my mom was driving me to school. She wrote a note excusing
my tardiness and I walked into choir class. My face was in shock and everyone
was asking me what was wrong. Nobody knew yet, I was the first of them to find
out. Twenty minutes later, a PA announcement was made, televisions were turned
on and the class was silent. I will never forget my choir directors face, as
her body fell against the wall in terror. Her daughter was going to NYU at the
time and there was no way of knowing if she was okay or not. We found out later
that she was okay but the smallest thought of loosing someone close to you is
an unimaginable nightmare for everyone.
Many
people died that day and many more were injured. In the weeks to come, we found a new spirit for
patriotism. America was pulling
together and standing strong. Our hearts went out to those who had died, those
who had lost people and those who had to stand strong in the face of complete
destruction. The terrorist attacks
did more than spread fear; it spread uncertainty. Not only were the Twin Towers
hit, but also there were two more attacks in Washington, D.C. America had to be
stronger than it has ever been. Hero’s rose and the Fire Department of New York
City became our hope for a better tomorrow.
The
9/11 terrorist attacks were made by a group called al-Qaeda. They are an
Islamic based terrorist group that had infiltrated four of our airplanes and
their goal was to crash them into the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon and the
Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, the plane that was to crash
into the Capitol Building was high jacked by a passenger and crashed into a
field instead. After the attacks, there was a tightened sense of security.
Everyone was on high alert and the TSA cracked down on flying regulations.
There was an increase in Muslim and Islamic racism and suspiciousness over
Islamic looking people. We were
scared and the first reaction to this was to fear the unknown.
On
September 11th, 2001, we needed a leader. In my eyes, President Bush
Jr. did not do much. He was a horrible speaker and I felt no sense of comfort
in his voice nor did I feel he was a huge presence in the rebuilding of
America. At the time, there was much controversy over the mayor of New York
City, Rudolph Giuliani, and there was little hope for him to be a voice for the
city. Giuliani had cheated on his wife and announced the separation without
telling her first and he had tore into an unarmed black mans reputation, as
this same man was killed by an undercover cop[1].
Needless to say, his morals were being called into question. However, with all of this in place,
Giuliani rose to the occasion and delivered a sense of calmness to the American
people during and after the attacks. It was said that Giuliani was the one who
set the example for the fire chiefs that day1.
Of course there were mistakes made and people were upset, but in a time of
crisis, Giuliani did what he thought was best. Whither or not this is completely true, from what I
remember, this is what the public needed from a leader.
Since
the attacks, I have been to visit Ground Zero twice. The first time was a year
after, in the fall of 2002. It is difficult to describe the visit. Everyone on
the trip was haunted by the view. None of us really knew what to expect. I was
Junior in High School and everything was so quiet. We were all so young and so
far removed from the situation; it was a sobering experience as to what had
happened just one year ago. Everyone wanted to pay their respects, but we did
not know how. Finally, my choir teacher pulled out her pitch pipe gave us all
our respected chords and we sang The Star Spangled Banner. Most of us could not
get through the song without crying. At the end of the song, we realized that
everyone around us had stopped what they were doing to take pictures or to
record our performance, as well as pay their respects. This stunned us
all. It was way before the age of
facebook, youtube and even the use of the Internet as a streaming device, so
all I have left from that day is a pixilated recording and the memory. Which
would not be enough for some, but for me, it means the world.
The
second trip was not as monumental, but the progress had spoke volumes. It was now 2007 and the spirit and hope
was inspiring. There were all sorts of commemorative plaques, sculptures and
writings. It was incredible. You could read people’s stories and relive moments
of terror. There were so many mixed emotions, both good and bad. I had taken
more pictures than I had before and even tried to recreate others. There was
this church that we visited in 2002, it was in the middle of all the
destruction, but not one piece of the building or any of the gravestones were
damaged in the attack. There was a fence around the church with candles, flags,
pictures of the fallen, letters of hope, letters of sadness and flowers. My
friends and I, in 2002, put a flag there with all of our signatures on it. I
wanted to see if that flag was still there. After an hour of searching, I gave
up. It was okay though, I knew that it had served its purpose and all I needed
was to remember.
Still
to this day, I cannot believe that there is this much hate in the world. Ending
this letter is difficult because I want to give you hope and I want there to be
a sense of security in your time. All I can say is please treat others with
respect and open your hearts and minds to all the ways people can inspire and
help you through life. There will be so much good in your life and there will
be so much bad. All you can do is
learn from the bad and know that everything happens for a reason. As cliché as
that sounds, please know that not all reasons are good reasons. Whether or not
you can find comfort in this fact, just know that you can make an impact with
how you react.
Respectfully,
Alaina Clarke
For this assignment, I did use an article from the New York times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/us/politics/21giuliani.html?pagewanted=all
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