2008 Woodie Awards
SectionsHow will this generation remember 9/11?
Jerry Garretson
Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Opinion
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I think it can be generally agreed that Sept. 11 sucked. Like the JFK assassination, the attack on Pearl Harbor or the death of Howard Dean's presidential bid, it was an event that would, for at least a generation, inform the American ethos. No longer do we leave our harbors, presidents or high-pitched celebratory speeches unguarded, and no longer do we underestimate the threat of religious zealotry.
Like those before us, we witnessed something so tragic, so traumatizing, we'll forever rem-ember exactly where we were at that moment.
I was vacuuming. Cleaning the living room, just before school. A nerd even then, I was watching the news and saw the story some two minutes after the first plane crashed. I didn't hear anything over the vacuum, and I didn't think to turn it off, so I only saw what was happening - the shaky camera, high atop a nearby building, capturing the almost serene death spirals of dozens of victims leaping from flames. I remember just standing there, trying to comprehend what I was seeing, the vacuum slowly wheeling away from me.
School wasn't school that day, but a somber procession from classroom to classroom. I remember, though, that the first few hours were productionless because we were all struggling to understand what had happened. But by the last few hours, we'd already discussed everything we needed to and were just using the adult's fascination with the tragedy to weasel out of actual schoolwork. Ah, youth.
This Tuesday, a teacher of mine told me his son had a friend who had an early birthday. Early because the friend was born on September 11. Writing a card to his friend, my teacher's son congratulated him, saying "Aren't you lucky to be born on the twin towers," or some such. Kind of amusing, but it really made me think.
Clearly, the kid didn't understand the depth of the tragedy. Nor did I when it happened, really. I didn't know anyone who was hurt, didn't even know of the twin towers before that day, and, honestly, was in large part fascinated by a sight I would normally rely on Hollywood to see. And I can't stop wondering, what will this day come to mean, and how will it be remembered
Like those before us, we witnessed something so tragic, so traumatizing, we'll forever rem-ember exactly where we were at that moment.
I was vacuuming. Cleaning the living room, just before school. A nerd even then, I was watching the news and saw the story some two minutes after the first plane crashed. I didn't hear anything over the vacuum, and I didn't think to turn it off, so I only saw what was happening - the shaky camera, high atop a nearby building, capturing the almost serene death spirals of dozens of victims leaping from flames. I remember just standing there, trying to comprehend what I was seeing, the vacuum slowly wheeling away from me.
School wasn't school that day, but a somber procession from classroom to classroom. I remember, though, that the first few hours were productionless because we were all struggling to understand what had happened. But by the last few hours, we'd already discussed everything we needed to and were just using the adult's fascination with the tragedy to weasel out of actual schoolwork. Ah, youth.
This Tuesday, a teacher of mine told me his son had a friend who had an early birthday. Early because the friend was born on September 11. Writing a card to his friend, my teacher's son congratulated him, saying "Aren't you lucky to be born on the twin towers," or some such. Kind of amusing, but it really made me think.
Clearly, the kid didn't understand the depth of the tragedy. Nor did I when it happened, really. I didn't know anyone who was hurt, didn't even know of the twin towers before that day, and, honestly, was in large part fascinated by a sight I would normally rely on Hollywood to see. And I can't stop wondering, what will this day come to mean, and how will it be remembered
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