Comments on: 9/11

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:03:10 +0000

In reply to Sarah Laurence. I don't think I'll ever forget, Sarah. And I didn't know anyone who died personally.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:01:34 +0000

In reply to Richard Gilbert. Thanks for sharing this experience, Richard. I guess that day is a day each of us needs to return to willingly. After 11 years, it still reaches so far--your freshman would have only been 7 or 8.

By: Sarah Laurence

Sarah Laurence — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:17:30 +0000

I lost a classmate who was a father of 4 that day. Thanks for remembering.

By: Richard Gilbert

Richard Gilbert — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 14:44:59 +0000

Several years ago, and again the other day, when I have given freshmen composition students the prompt “9/11 and Me,” a reflection from their young selves about their memories of that day—like my generation’s experiencing as gradeschool kids the assassination of JFK—a student in the class has had some close connection. The first time, it was a kid’s neighbor who lost someone. This week it was a girl who lost her aunt. Even if by next year or the next students would still have some memory, I’d never subject anyone to that exercise again, not after seeing the girl break down this week because of what I’d forced her to relive. These are kids from smalltown Ohio, and in both cases someone was hit very hard by those attacks.