Tribute

7 years ago today I was getting ready for my first class of the day at 6:30 a.m. My radio woke me up as usual, and I was standing in front of my mirror, brushing my hair, when I heard, "A plane has just hit the World Trade Center." I remember thinking "This is just a mistake, some idiot who fell asleep at the controls of a Cessna or something who just killed some innocent people."

The rest of that day runs through my head like a tape that alternates between fast forward and pause. I remember walking past classrooms at WSU that had handwritten signs saying "Class Canceled." I remember somebody pulling out a TV into the common area of Cleveland Hall and pulling up benches. I remember seeing the second plane as it hit. I remember tears running down my face and a stranger standing behind me who squeezed my shoulder in comfort.

This morning I told my students about that day and the effect it had on our country. I told them that there were some very bad people who hate us for the way we live our lives and the freedoms we have. I told them to be thankful for that freedom. I had tears in my eyes when I said it, and you could have heard a pin drop in my classroom of 33 kids.

At our assembly, our music teacher told the entire school, with a catch in her voice, that the day before it happened, she had been teaching a lesson on Pearl Harbor. A student came up and asked if it could happen again. "No way," she reassured him. The next day she had to explain to him that she was wrong.

We can't forget. We've grown complacent already. I was lucky enough not to be directly touched by what occurred that day. But that makes me even more scared that it could happen again and hurt someone I love.

Remember. And thank the members of our military who are working so hard to protect us, and keep it from happening again.