19 Years Later

-

 I told my students this week that I can remember 9/11/01 like it was yesterday. (Same with the assassination of Kennedy, 57 years ago when I was 7, and the Challenger Disaster, and the Moon Landing.) All of these are mediated and also not immediate to our lives happening in New York, Dallas, Florida, and, well, the moon.

My students were mostly babies, and the freshmen hadn't been born. That's ..... concerning. They won't understand a pivotal moment in our history. They will take for granted that it's an ordeal to get on a plane, for one. They will also be scarred by this pandemic. Will we stop shaking hands, even?

They will not understand how for a couple of hours we really didn't know who or what would be attacked next. That a planeful of brave Americans kept the capitol building from being destroyed, or the White House, and thus how many lives were saved? 

It gives me chills. And for a few months, Americans actually thought about God. 

What would make them think longer?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kallman's Syndrome: The Secret Best Kept

-
I went to my cardiologist yesterday.   Every year I have to wear a Holter monitor for a day because of a heart ablation I had in 2007.   If you don’t know what a Holter monitor is, it’s a 24-hour mobile, wires-hanging-off-your-body EKG.   The nurse practitioner saw me, (not the doctor, which is ok because his voice puts me to sleep).   She was very sweet.   She asked me if I was still taking Estradiol and Progesterin.   “No,” I said. “I’ve totally gone off those.   I was on them for a very long time and I wanted to be sure to stop.” What I didn’t tell her is how long I actually had taken those hormones.   37 years.   I started with HRT when I was 17 because I have Kallman’s Syndrome.   You may never meet a person who has this condition.   It only affects 1 in 10,000 people (or 1 in 86,000, according to one source) so that’s quite a range and far more males have it than females (as do most negative things).   So, being female, I am quite an oddit
Read more

Do I Really Have to See the Barbie Movie?

-
 You know, I was going to write an essay about the Barbie movie .  I am pretty close to deciding that I don't need to spend $8 or more (plus gasoline), 3 hours, and some brain cells looking at pink (only pretty in its natural settings) silliness.  Therefore, I think I will also save the time writing this trying to explain why I probably won't see it unless it comes on YouTube and I'm too tired to do anything else.  Some are talking about it like it's the most profound art of the summer and an insightful exploration of sexual power dynamics. I have enough problems already. And I watched the other half of Barbenheimer already, Oppenheimer (it is brilliant except for the unnecessary and nauseating sex, which I guess was put in there to show what a womanizer he was).  I've already spent my 3 hours on movies for the summer.  Oh, and three on Sound of Freedom, but that was obligatory. And worth it; despite the controversies (ginned up by media that will attack anything
Read more