I’ve spent today wondering how I was going to write about today.  Should I just make a brief mention, or go for broke?  I think the whole mess that the Today show made sealed my decision.

Eleven years ago, I was sitting in Spanish class when a classmate came in and asked our teacher if she’d heard that someone had bombed the pentagon.  I know we had class, but I don’t remember much about it.  Then, I headed to my history class, and my teacher had the t.v. on.  The first tower had already come down, but not long after I sat down, the second tower went.  I remember the newscasters just saying, “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!”

It was so strange watching that t.v.  It felt like I was watching a movie that just wouldn’t end.  It was hard to really wrap my head around that these events were happening in the same country

In the weeks and months that followed, there was this patriotic fervor that I’d never really witnessed before.  Sadly, it didn’t last, but for that short time it was so tragic and amazing.

Y’know, I grew up with parents who remembered exactly where they were when JFK was shot.  My earliest memory is watching the Challenger blow up.  I remember the 1993 trade center bombing.  I remember the Oklahoma City bombing.  These tragedies stick with you, or at least, they’ve stuck with me.