September 11, 2001

A post that I recommend Carissa and her husband 's 9/11 post.

Good Morning America was on the TV in the living room. I glanced at it, Dianne Sawyer was announcing that something had happened and no one knew what yet, to stay tuned. Waiting in the drop off line at the Wynne Primary School to drop off my kindergartner and 1st grader, the song on the radio was interrupted to announce that New York City had been bombed. I remember feeling chilled.

At the office, I was working at Talbott & Ladd Law Offices, I turned on the little TV in the law library and watched around 8am our time, the smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center. Dianne Sawyer of GMA broke in and said to take cover, they believed a second plane had hit the Twin Towers. I remember one of the lawyers rushing in and we both stood still watching as Dianne Sawyer spoke the words "We should all take cover" and the camera panned to the towers just as the plane hit...the 2nd airplane hit the tower... I am not one that shows emotion, I rarely cry in public, and have perfected what my mother calls "Scotts Blank Stare", but on that day watching those people jump from the tower and seeing it collapse, I could not hold back the tears. I do not believe that anyone in the law office that day accomplished anything. We watched all day as the news unfolded in New York and the news of the Pentagon and the other flight, Flight 93 that was averted by those brave passengers. We wondered, is this an attack that will lead to other attacks around the nation, should we get our kids out of school? I remember my friend Dianna calling, asking the same questions, should we get our kids, will we be next? 9/11 affected everyone, not just in the USA, around the world. I believe that the schools were put on temporary lock down.

One thing that I have a problem with is this...Why, did it take a tragedy such as 9/11 for Americans to become Patriotic? I'm not saying that everyone was not patriotic, I'm saying, we have the privilege to live in a great country, we should have been LOVIN' our country before. Why did it take a tragedy for the Congress, who have been struggling with whether to take out "In God We Trust", to stand on the steps as a whole and sing "God Bless America". Why were they not united in keeping God in our schools in the 80's, look at where that has gotten us, Columbine, and more close to my home, West Side School Shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We don't pray at school functions anymore, we have a moment of silence...yet, the government sings "God Bless America" and asks for our prayers for them while they in session making laws and passing bills. Gees, I think I got off the beaten path there...what I'm saying is, its okay for the government to be swishy-washy... I get tired of it. As some of you know, our nephew John is in Iraq today. He volunteered. He turned 21 in August in Iraq and quite possibly on his birthday was on the front lines, where he has been told not to shoot anyone, take out their weapons.

I'm sorry, this is something that I do not understand. They "terrorists" took out New York, who were defenseless, and young men fighting on the front lines are told to take out their weapons...not to shoot anyone. This makes no sense to me at all.

Now, for my next to biggest comment...Why did it take a tragedy such as 9/11 for old friends to contact each other? Now the biggie...Why did it take a tragedy such as 9/11 for family members to call each other, maybe family that you haven't heard from in a long time. Why is it that a tragedy brings this kind of communication up. Since I opened that can of worms...I see this all the time and sadly even at my own grandfather's and grandmother's funerals...FUNERALS sometimes seem to be family reunions...not just long lost cousins, thats understandable...but brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, there are families that do not keep in contact. I understand that there are sometimes circumstances that keep families from talking. Its really becoming way to common. I'm going to contradict my self right now. I just said today to Dianne that it seems like with certain people that I do all the calling and that I was backing off and let people call me. See, I'm contradicting... BUT and thats a big BUT we are human and emotions are sometimes so raw, we just can't pick up that phone and make that call. We are complicated for sure.

There's more where that came from...I think you may be bored so here is something lighthearted...

***********************************************

Overheard Conversations today on the way to school.
Taylor: Hey! This girl leaned against a door in PE class and out came this creepy spider. Everyone screamed like little sissy girls, everyone except me.
MM: Oh, hey, what kind of spider was it?
Tim: I bet you screamed like a little girl Taylor.
Taylor: NO I DIDN'T SCREAM AND THE SPIDER WAS A TRI-ARANCH-U-LAR. So there.

Translator needed...
I was on the phone with Dianne on the way home and this is what I said...
"They removed the permanent splint from MM's teeth and made new impressions for new retainers."
This is what Taylor heard...
"I'm cooking hamburgers tonight for the girls and cooking me a big ol' juicy steak"
WHAT????