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From the Mouths of Babes, Comes Words of Wisdom...Sep 14 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Toleration is the greatest gift we could ever give our children. I awoke at 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The day started as a day of normal happenings. I woke, showered, dried my hair, brushed my teeth and got my son ready for school. We fought over whether or not he would eat oatmeal for breakfast. He picked on his little sister. He smeared oatmeal all over his clothes. He needed to be changed and washed up. Time was quickly passing and my son was going to be late for school. I yelled at him, at my daughter and at my husband. Off my husband went to work. Off my son went to school. And to her room, I sent my daughter. More or less, it was a normal day. Little did I know, it would become a day, forever burned into my memory. I cleaned up the mess from breakfast, threw in a load of laundry, and as always, sat down with a hot cup of coffee, grabbed the remote and turned on the Fox News Channel. A normal day. I sat in horror as I watched the events that had been unfolding all morning. The World Trade Center huit by terrorists. The Pentagon hit by terrorists. The news of a plane crash in Pennsylvania, suspected of being occupied by terrorists. People jumping from windows in desperation. The two bohemoth World Trade Centers crumbling, falling to the ground. With tears of great sadness and shock streaming down my face, I wondered how and what would I tell my children. As I reached for my cup of coffee, that had been forgotten until then, I realized it was cold and it was a coldness I felt right down to my very core. Then I thought some more. I thought of all of the peaceful people from the Middle East living in this country. I knew they would share in the blame for this action taken by a few fanatics, and I knew it was wrong. I knew this was something my kids would have to be taught. I also knew that there would be various people around them, especially my school age son, who would be trying to convince him that all Muslims were to be blamed. Once again, my thoughts switched. I thought of my husband. I had fought with him that morning. How many other spouses and parents and so on had fought with their loved ones that morning? How many of them had loved ones who would no longer be there in body, but only in spirit and memory? How many children no longer had parents? How many couples would now be seperated by death? I had no answers. When my son arrived home, he knew by my demeanor, something was wrong. We sat down and watched the news together. When they announced they would be showing the plane crashing into the second tower, I had a split second decision to make. Would I allow him to watch or turn the channel? As my son watched the plane crash into the tower, I watched him. His first reaction was "cool", it then quickly dawned on him that there were people in those buildings. "Mom," he said,"there were moms and dads in there. Wasn't there?" I could see he was hoping there wasn't, but I gently told him that yes, there was. As tears filled his eyes, he had one question, "Why?" I knew the time had come to explain, to the best of my ability, the why and the who. I explained that these were "bad people who like to scare others." That answer was enough for the time being. Off outside he went to play. He returned a little while later saying the words I knew I would eventually hear. "We need to kill all these people. What they did was wrong. Why are they in our country anyway?" Once again it was time to explain. I told him that yes, it was wrong, but not everyone of that race felt the same way. The people that did this are a very few individuals. I went on to explain that they are in our country because we are very fortunate to have the freedoms that we do and where they used to live was not a good place, so they moved here. "Dylan says we are Americans, mom and that they aren't. Is that true?" "Well", I say,"yes, you are an American." "But what is an American, mom?" "An American", I say, "is someone that lives in this country and goes to school in this country and works in this country. They like living here as much as you and I do and want to protect others in this country, just like you and I do." "Well, Dylan's wrong then, because they are Americans, too. I don't think I want to play with Dylan because he's not very nice right now." As I watched my son run off to play again, with two children of different races, I knew that the world was ok and that we as a nation and a world would come together one day. I just hoped that it would be within my childrens lifetime. Reassure your children of your love for them. Let them know that most people are good. Explain to them, in simple terms, what has happened. Tell them that this is country full of many races and religions, but of one nationality, American. Teach them peace, love and understanding. Toleration is the greatest gift we will ever be able to give our children. It is a gift that is free and crosses all boundries. Rich, poor, young or old, it is a gift that will last a lifetime. As I was tucking my son into bed that night, he told me that he knew most people in the world were "good and nice and cool." And I knew that he was right.  |
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