Yahoo! is asking Americans how September 11 changed them. Below is an account from a reader.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was only 10 years old without a care in the world. Math class with my fifth-grade teacher had begun, and I knew nothing of the terror going on all around the country. A teacher from another class frantically came into our classroom and said something in private to our teacher, and almost immediately, she turned on the television that was hardly ever used.
We all watched the available clips of the first plane hitting, and none of us could understand what was happening. My own thoughts were that some kind of stunt with a plane went horribly wrong. However, the second plane came around, and with us watching it live, it smashed into the second tower. Having already been confused, we were even more so after this, but even a child could tell that this was no accident.
“That plane did that on purpose!” I remembered shouting. The lot of us had our eyes glued to the screen, and before we could see more, our teacher turned off the television. She then gave us the most serious gaze I had ever seen from her, and she went on to ask us if any of us knew what terrorism was; none of us could answer.
That day, and the entire world, discovered what terrorism is, and even though this event shook the world, I realized something vastly important. I realized how fortunate I am to live in a country such as America, with people so brave and willing to risk their lives for the sake of others, and that the safety we have today is because of them. It is because of those people who died that I am alive today. It is because of them that I we never knew what terrorism was until those two buildings tragically fell. Let us honor the firefighters, the paramedics, the police officers, and all the others who could have just saved themselves but decided not to.
God bless America!