September 11 2001 - Dad of Divas

9-11 – Honoring the past. Where were you 19 years ago?

I think that most of us can all remember the moments that surrounded the 9-11 tragedy that struck our nation 18 years ago.

I remember where I was… I was in my office at the university that I was working at as a Student Affairs Professional. I believe it was J-Mom who called me and told me to turn on the radio because it looked like a plane had collided with one of the twin towers. Unbeknownst to us was all the malice that was behind the first attack, let alone the subsequent attacks within New York City as well as the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

I remember hearing this and calling my colleagues to find a television that we could turn on and we watched in our main office as the tragedy revealed itself. I was numb, dumbstruck. Only once before had I felt this way, and that was when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded. I simply had never witnessed such hatred, such a loss of life, and later that week we found out how close to home this hit our family.

The Saturday before 9/11 my wife and I celebrated the wedding of a high school friend of J-Mom. The wedding was a wonderful event full of love and laughter. At that event, I was able to meet a friend of the bride named Kelly Ann Booms who sat in front of us during the wedding. She made a comment that she had to get back to Boston on Sunday because she had a business trip that she had to fly out for (to Los Angeles) early on Tuesday morning (9/11). Later that week we found out that Kelly was a passenger on the first plane that hit Tower 1 (Flight 11). We were shocked that someone we just spoke with could be gone in an instant and it brought the national tragedy to a whole new level of meaning. We now felt a part of this tragedy and not as far removed.

The images of the first few hours of 9-11, and the first few days afterward still are burned into my memory and I think they will never leave. For my generation, I think that this event will be the event that truly defines our generation as it may have been Pearl Harbor for my grandparents or the JFK assassination of JFK for my own parents.

So today, 19 years later I take a moment to remember Kelly and the other victims of the 9/11 attacks. May we never again live through such an event.

When my daughters get old enough to understand the significance of this day I will help them understand, but it will not be easy for them to grasp the severity of the events and what it did to the American Spirit that followed. I can only hope that I will be ready for this discussion when the time comes.

So my question for the day?

- What are your memories of this event in our collective history?

- How will you tell your children about this event in the future?

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My Daughter’s Reaction to Learning about 9/11

It is funny how time seems to warp the older you get. I remember when the World Trade Center towers were attacked in 2001, and to me, it doesn’t feel like it was more than a decade ago. I was working in an office building on the ninth floor and remember some of the employees being scared that our building would be subjected to such destruction. As it has grown to be common knowledge, sometimes I forget that what I remember as recent history, my eight-year old wasn’t around to experience.

Learning in School

After school on September 11th of 2013, my daughter came home and was eager to share with me what she had learned that day. She got this serious look on her face and told me about how all those people died in 2001. From the sound in her voice and the look in her eyes, I can tell that it affected her deeply. Once she told me of how she learned of the terrible attack, I realized how old I was getting. That’s right…she wasn’t around until 2005. This means that my recent historical knowledge isn’t as recent as I’d originally thought.

Why Did They Do It?

As we talked about what had happened all those years ago, it made me realize just how much I didn’t know about it as well. We are a family that bases knowledge on indisputable facts. We explore knowledge in order to find the truth behind any subject. However, I was a bit bewildered when we were discussing why 9/11 happened. Do we go along with what mainstream media has perpetuated, or do I explain it more like a conspiracy theorist? Since the world may never have a 100% indisputable fact of what happened in 2001, the best answer I could come up with was, “because sometimes people do really bad things for what they believe in.” Does this mean my daughter will view people who stand up for what they believe in as terrorists?

In the Eye of the Beholder

England once labeled Americans as terrorists – more than 200 years ago. Our forefathers committed crimes against the crown in order to fight against oppression. Today, we call them patriots. How thin is that line between patriot and terrorist? It all depends on what side of the line you’re standing on. How do I teach this to my daughter without pointing fingers at who is wrong? Perspective plays a pivotal role in how events are relayed to the rest of the world. To us, 9/11 was an unforgivable tragedy that killed thousands of innocent lives – and continues to haunt us as the battles continue. To them, 9/11 was a victory that demonstrated that the United States isn’t as safe as we’d like to believe.

Although she’s old enough to begin understanding the ramifications of such a tragedy, my daughter hasn’t been able to appreciate the full scale of what had happened. She does feel sad for all of those people, but her understanding is still somewhat limited. However, I feel somewhat more empowered as time marches on. We don’t really understand just how much history we are living through every day. Our actions can easily become a part of that history affecting change that can cause a ripple effect through time and impact how our children view us as adults.

Author Bio:

Ken Myers is the founder of http://www.longhornleads.com/ & has learned over the years the importance of focusing on what the customer is looking for and literally serving it to them. He doesn’t try to create a need, instead he tries to satisfy the existing demand for information on products and services.

9-11 – Honoring the past. Where were you 21 years ago?

9-11 – Honoring the past. Where were you 19 years ago?

My Daughter’s Reaction to Learning about 9/11 #dadchat

My Daughter’s Reaction to Learning about 9/11

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