There are some things I never forget.  The day President Kennedy was assassinated.  The day the Challenger exploded.  Columbine.  What I was doing on 9/11/2001.  My husband called me and said turn on the TV.  I got there in time to see the second plane hit the tower.  I watched with my hand over my mouth then turned to my little son and said “Kyle, we’re going to war.”  All day long I walked around in a daze.  That evening I was called by NBC News.  Justice correspondent, Pete Williams, had been vacationing in Yellowstone National Park.  He could not get back to Washington so he needed to go live from KUSA in Denver.  I was his producer.  I wasn’t at Ground Zero.  I wasn’t among my New York colleagues.  Pete went home and so did I. 

But 9/11 wouldn’t let go of me.  I was consumed by the reports and confused by my feelings.  I was feeling detached, panicky and somehow responsible.  The more I listened to TV and radio the more I felt that the United States had somehow brought this upon ourselves.  I needed to bear witness to get some perspective.  I decided to go to New York and see things for myself.  No one I knew would travel with me so I took my little son, Kyle, the same one who looked at me confused when I said “we’re going to war.”   We arrived in New York City one month to the day after the attacks.  My family was incredulous that I would take him there.  My husband’s family was furious that I would put him in danger.  What kind of mother was I?

I was afraid to get on a plane.  I pushed through it.  I was afraid of the Muslim cab driver who picked us up from LaGuardia Airport.  I pushed through it.  He was as shellshocked as everyone else.  I was stunned by the incredible compassion of New Yorkers who were so wounded yet so grateful that we had come.    Even the homeless thanked us from their street corners.  Broadway put on its musicals but theatres were empty.  The city was edgy.  There were anthrax scares.  We went to Ground Zero while it was smoldering.  The facade was still standing, crews were still combing through the wreckage and the smell of death remained in the air.  We read the flyers with faces of the missing.  We saw the flowers and makeshift memorials.  I was stunned into silence.  I finally cried uncontrollably when we went to Grand Central Station and saw the bulletin boards full of  pleas from families desperate to locate loved ones.  It was all so much to take in. 

I wanted Kyle to know what was lost on that day and what we still had.  We couldn’t go to the Statue of Liberty so I took him for a ride on the Staten Island Ferry so he could at least get an idea of what this country stands for and why this attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the very essence of America, was so traumatic.  And the most profound thing happened.  On board the ferry were so many firefighters.  They were all from out of town.  They had come to attend funerals of their fallen brothers because there simply were not enough firefighters left to honor so many who had died.  They were riding the ferry from one to another to give their brothers a proper farewell.  Kyle stood among them and had his picture taken.  Kyle and the heroes.  Later when we were in Midtown Manhattan we paused and watched a funeral processions for a fallen policeman.  It was so somber.  There was so much sadness in the air. 

Now eight years later we pause and reflect and name the dead but then we quickly get on with our lives.  So much has changed as a result of 9/11 but so much has really stayed the same.  I think most people wish it would just go away.  The memories are so painful.  But of course it won’t leave us.  It never will go away and we shall always remember the day and what we were doing when we first found out.  I will always be grateful for that time I spent with my son in New York in October 2001.  It gave me a chance to grieve and such a sense of clarity.  The United States did nothing to provoke this.  Did nothing to deserve this terrorist attack at the very soul of America.  And yes we did go to war.  At the moment it seemed so right.  So necessary. 

Going to New York after 9/11 was life altering for me and one of the most profound teaching moments for my child.  This summer I took my other son, Blair, to New York City.  It was a much more festive time but we still went to Ground Zero.  It’s a construction site now with a memorial to the side.  I kept babbling about memories from the trip I took with Kyle.  I wanted Blair to feel it too.  We went to the little church next door that withstood the blast and is a memorial to this day.  A choir was singing in memory of the fallen.  There were touching memorials to the New Yorkers and first responders who died.  And we went to the Statue of Liberty so he would know what was lost and what this country still stands for to Americans and the world.

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