19 Years Later

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 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?

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