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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ” , ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 2018 WWW. UNWLA .ORG 5 Remembering September 11, 2001 Se venteen years ago, Americans watched in horror as the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City collapsed after an early morning ter- rorist attack. Friends called friends; colleagues called colleagues; family members called wives, husbands, chi ldren, parents, or cousins. The horrible news traveled quickly, and the horror was magnified by news of the assault on the Pentagon and news of the plane hijacked by terrorists intent on the destruction of the White House or the Capitol or some other Ameri can land- mark, a plot foiled by passengers who heroically sacrificed their own lives for the greater good. As events unfolded, Americans and people around the world mourned the dead and marveled at the heroic deeds of the passengers on United Airlines Fligh t 93 and at the heroism of the firefighters and po- licemen and military personnel and ordinary men and women who risked their lives to save the lives of others at the site of the Twin Towers and at the Pentagon. Since the tragic events of 9/11, Americans co ntinue to mourn the victims of 9/11 and pay homage to the heroes at the memorial pool where the Twin Towers once stood; at the Pentagon Memorial in Vir- ginia; at the Flight 93 National Memorial at Shanksville, Pennsylvania; at the National September 11th Me morial and Museum in New York City; and in their own homes and hearts. − tsc _______________________________________________ “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?” To those of us who are part of the Baby Boomer generation, the title of Alan Ja ckson’s song prompts mem- ories of a cascading sequence of events that touched our lives. The first event of such magnitude was the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I was in 8th grade at the time, sitting at my desk in Mrs. Doman’s English class. I forgot what the lesson of the day was, but I remember with total and absolute clarity that the vice principal barged into the room and announced, “The President’s been shot.” This brought on a horrified moment of total silence followed by tears and muted “Oh my Gods” and similar expressions of shock. We were told to pack our things and go home and were notified that school would be closed the following day. When I got home, I turned on our black and white television set and watched in mesmerized silence as a succession of newscasters spoke of what had happened in Dallas, Texas. The details are somewhat blurred, but I can still recall the relentless progression of images that appeared on the television screen late into the night, mingled with image s from the days following: the distraught but dignified First Lady in a blood - stained suit, a subdued and teary - eyed Caroline Kennedy, and young John - John saluting his father at the gravesite in Arlington. These were followed by images of Lee Harvey Oswald , the assassin, being shot and a host of speculative theories on whether Oswald had acted alone or whether he was part of a convoluted and mysterious geopolitical plot. The events of September 11, nearly four decades after the assassination of President K ennedy, re- main equally clear and indelible. I was sitting on a chair at my dining room table, working with a colleague on a project for Harcourt Publishing Company, a tedious exercise that involved cross - checking the page numbers listed in the indexes of h istory textbooks with content included on the designated pages (e.g., does the word “corn” appear on page 63?). In the midst of this project came a phone call from my col- league’s wife asking if we were watching television, an odd question asked in a tone o f voice that was the first inkling we had that something was very wrong with the world. The black and white television set on my kitchen counter was duly turned on, and we saw the smoke billowing from the World Trade Center towers. The hours and days that followed revealed new horrors: the Twin Towers collapsing, the plane that terrorists smashed into the Pentagon, and the plane hijacked by terrorists whose intentions were foiled by passengers who chose to end their lives as heroes rather than as victims a nd who forced a crash landing in a quiet field in rural Pennsylvania rather than allowing the terrorists to hit some target of their own choosing. For many of us, the memories of the assassination of JFK and the horrors of 9/11 remain inter- twined with lyr ics of Jackson’s song, which asks a series of poignant question that still resonate: Did you go to a church and hold hands with some stranger? Did you stand in line and give your own blood? Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family , t hanking God you had someone to love?
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