Nine years ago today, I was 14 years old and in 9th grade. I had been in high school for only about two weeks, but that didn’t really make much of an impact on my memories of the time. The switch to high school was smooth for me; my brothers went to that school before me, and all of my friends from middle school were there with me in high school.
If I’m remembering correctly, I had third-period computer keyboarding class. When I walked in, the television was on and the teacher said in a voice tinged with excitement and awe that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Honestly, as a 14-year-old from Maryland, I didn’t really know what the Twin Towers were. I thought it was an accident, of course. Class went on pretty much as normal.
On the way from third to fourth period, my friend went past in the opposite direction. I remember the spot, the corner in the upstairs hallway near my English class. Her face was shocked and pale, and when I asked her if something was wrong, she just shook her head. I’m almost sure that she’d been watching the events unfold on the TV.
My memories are a little hazy. Fourth period would have begun sometime about 10:00. The television was on already, and by this time the second plane had flown into the second tower, and I think one tower had fallen. An announcement came on shortly after class began to announce that all classes were to stop and televisions were to be turned on to the news. We would also be sent home early (you know, in case a plane was flown into a high school in rural Maryland). From then on, we watched and I got chills seeing what was happening.
That’s where I was on September 11, 2001. Where were you?
Currently, I’m watching a show on the History Channel about September 11th conspiracy theories, and I am amazed–and sickened–by some of the wrong-headed thinking of the theorists. I am shocked that straightforward evidence can be ignored. What’s most remarkable to me is the fallacy of the super-efficient government. What these conspiracy theorists clearly forget is that governments are made of human beings, and that at the time an attack like this was unprecedented. Our government is absolutely not all-powerful. Planes cannot be scrambled at the blink of an eye. There are gaps in the protection–and that was made painfully clear on September 11th, 2001.
