2013 marks the 12th year since the attacks on America. It’s only the third time in our short history, aside from the revolutionary war, where we have been attacked by another country on our own soil, all of them just as tragic; the other two being Pearl Harbor and the Alamo.
Though I will do a lesson around Pearl Harbor as well, Patriots Day strikes me on a more personal level, I think because I lived through it. I remember the day quite vividly. It was my first September after graduating high school. I had woken up for work, and turned on the news as I got ready for the day, and ended up being glued to the TV. All I can remember thinking is that I must have been watching a movie. There was no way this was real. After a late start to the day, my coworker came by my house, and we went on our way to the job site up in the Avenues in Salt Lake. We took the long way to work, swinging by the airport on our way, just because we wanted to see. It was the most bizarre sight, the airport just shut down. Nothing. No planes coming in. No planes leaving. No planes moving around the runway. Nothing. Finally we made our way to the house we were working on and, well, let’s just say, not a lot of work was done by anyone that day. We ended up leaving before lunch and not returning that day. It just didn’t feel right. Yes, I remember the day detail for detail. I have a brother that lives in Sterling, Virginia, and works in Washington D.C. I remember thinking of him as the plane hit the Pentagon. I have several friends who work for different airlines. I remember thinking of them as each plane went down. So many people lost that day. I can be grateful that I did not know any personally, but that didn’t make it any less heavy. As David Levithan said, “What separates us from the animals, what separates us from the chaos, is our ability to mourn people we’ve never met.”
As much as it seems like yesterday that all this happened, it baffles me to think that most of my students this year were not even alive. Most of them were thoughts, as most of them were pregnancies at the time, but these kids have no memories of this day. I do take a short amount of the time to teach them about the day, so they know what Patriots’ Day is and why we observe it, and it doesn’t take long to get the emotion across. After talking about the day, I show a short Tribute video.
After just a short discussion and video about the horrors of the day, I turn the conversation around. We begin to discuss the difference between a celebrity and a hero. Michael Jordan can play basketball. He likes being in front of people, performing. He is not a hero. Firemen, policemen, the armed services…. these are heroes. Men and women of distinguished courage or ability admired for their brave deeds and nobles qualities. Celebrities like the spotlight, heroes usually do not. I do also talk about how it is possible to be both. There are people, like the band Linkin Park, who use their celebrity status for good. Linkin Park has set up a non-profit group called Music for Relief, where they take their money, their time, and their energies to go in and help out areas that have been struck by natural disaster. It is possible to be both celebrity and hero, but not all celebrities are heroes, and though they deserve it, most heroes would rather not be celebrities.
The culminating event of the unit based around Patriots’ Day is when I give the students a chance to honor some of our hometown heroes. This year is the fifth year running that the Syracuse Fire Department has been able to send some of their men into my classroom on this day. They are able to talk about what it means to be a fire fighter, and what 9/11 meant to their brotherhood. I believe it’s more powerful than anything I could ever teach on my own, and it gives us the chance to say thank you while we can.
Thank a fireman. Thank a policeman. Thank a marine, army, navy or airman. We never know when there might not be a tomorrow, so don’t ever miss a chance to say thank you today.
“The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic, and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom.” ~Rudolph Giuliani, former mayor of New York City