The generation before us remembers where they were when Kennedy was shot. I remember where I was when the Challenger exploded, when the Berlin wall came down, when the Columbine shootings happened, and I remember exactly where I was while the horrific events of 9/11/01 were taking place. My 7th grade science teacher, though not the chosen one, had been one of the finalists to be the first teacher to go in space. I remember the gut wrenching scene as we all watched the live launch and then the sickening sight of the explosion. T.V. was also how I watched the Berlin wall be torn down. I have a real chunk of it sitting on my book shelf – a reminder to me of radical times. I was a Coloradan during the Columbine ordeal and cried as I watched everything unfolding on the news, rubbing my pregnant belly and thinking, “what in the world am I bringing this child into?” On 9/11, I was at BSF. We watched on the big screen as the towers fell, and we hugged and cried. I felt the deep need to get home to my husband and baby boy yet I was glued to my spot, totally entranced in what I was seeing and listening to the news reporters. I kept praying, “Lord, have mercy, save those people!”
Today I spent the morning recovering from my weekend in OK and once again sat glued to the T.V. taking in all the media had to offer on this anniversary of that awful day five years ago. As you know, I have a love/hate relationship with the media. (Mostly hate I’m afraid) I did love hearing about the heroism portrayed through the ordeal. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things for their fellow man. My friend Bill wrote an article for a newspaper – you should read it. He volunteered at Ground Zero and will never be the same because of it. http://www.christianchronicle.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=456
President Bush is addressing the nation in a little while and I plan to hear what he has to say. I hope you do too. Whether you voted for him or not, he’s the leader of our country and he needs our prayers. Say a prayer for all who were effected by the tragic events of 9/11, and thank God for the men and women who are fighting for us right now – trying to ensure our safety and our freedom. Bless them all! Don’t forget where you were…But more importantly…don’t forget.
On 9/11 I was in a rental car. My husband’s car had been backed into by a person who had not looked. We were supposed to take back the Chevy Malibu (4 doors) to get a Chevy Cavalier (2 doors like my husband’s car was), but then all flights were grounded, and every rental car in the city was rented. They told us to keep the car, and they would work it out later with our insurance.
We had pulled into to parking lot at our work (we both worked at the same place back then) and the fun-loving radio guy broke in on his partner’s joking to tell the world what the Associated Press had to say. We were stunned, and thought he must not be serious. We went inside, and one of the ladies had a television on in the back conference room. We all watched in horror, and cried.
I have a friend who lives in NYC, and he had to walk home after the towers fell that day… through 3 burroughs, and across a couple of bridges to his island. He still will not go within about a mile of Ground Zero.
I liked LooneyMom’s sponsorship of a Trade Center victim. That was cool. I cried all over again.
I remember (vaguely) when John Lennon got shot, where I was when Challenger didn’t come home, where I was when Reagan pleaded to “tear this wall down”, and I live in OKC where we have our own memorial of tragedy from April 19. I know that there is evil in the world.
How blessed we are to know that there is also a Father who watches us, and loves us.
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I was at home getting ready to leave for the day. I rushed to my wife’s classroom at Grenada Middle School and told her. That evening we opened the church building for prayer.
I will never forget it. I was born not far from the Towers. Having actually seen them “in person” it was sort of unbelievable that something so big could just crumble in a matter of seconds.
Shalom,
Bobby Valentine
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