God Bless AmericaSep 15 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Pray to God, be kind to others, donate blood, donate money, and don't fret over the petty issues in life.
For the past few days I, like many Americans, have felt angry, frightened, and numb. You know normal will never be "normal" again. Each night before we go to bed, I give the kids an extra hug and a kiss. We say extra prayers for the innocent people who have lost their lives, for all of the families who have lost loved ones, and for all of the hateful people that they may find the love and peace of God. Each morning when we go our separate ways to work and to school, my children get an extra hug, kiss, and "I love you". All of the things we took for granted before seem so precious now. The morning this great tragedy happened, I was teaching Reading to my group of fourth graders. One of the other teachers came in and whispered that a plane had struck the WTC and they thought it may be terrorists. Not wanting to alarm my students, I went on with my lesson with this in the back of my thoughts. A little while later the Guidance Counselor came in to teach a lesson and I went to another part of the school to copy some papers. While there, another teacher came from her room to ask if I had heard. Yes, that was terrible that the plane struck the WTC. She then informed me that it was both of the towers and the Pentagon. I sat down immediately, shaking, scared, and wondering where they were going to strike next. When the fourth plane crashed, it was more alarming to know that it was less than 80 miles from our school and that it very well could have been our community that was struck. Still not wanting to alarm my students and send them into a state of panic, I kept quiet about the entire incident all day. Like most of us that day, I couldn't concentrate on my job. Our principal told us to take them out for an extra recess and do other things during the day that wouldn't take much effort. On Wednesday, back at school, we spent part of the morning discussing the attacks. The students told what they had learned the day before, what their parents had said about the ordeal, and what they did and didn't understand. I talked to them about how important it was to stick together as a nation, how important it was to be kind to one another, and how so many things didn't seem important anymore. Like the guy in front of you on the road who drives too slow...who cares anymore? Your neighbor who doesn't mow his grass for weeks, the student who sits beside of you and stares at you when you don't want him staring, or the student who forgot his textbook in his locker when he needs it right now. None of these things are worth getting angry about! Some things that we talked about that could help during this critical time...be kind to one another, visit those who are lonely and facing this terrible time alone, give blood (I never have before but you can bet that each and every time from here on out that there is a blood drive in my town I will be there), donate money to one or more of the many organizations that are collecting for the families of the men and women who have lost their lives (we have donated to the Firefighters Fund of NYC...the money goes to the fallen firefighters families), but most of all you need to be praying. Pray with your family and your community members. It's a very sad thing that we cannot even talk to our students about what God is all about, how prayer is so important, and how God is the foundation of all living things. They pray in Congress, they pray everywhere but school. Why couldn't we just say "Let's bow our heads and close our eyes and collect our thoughts and if you believe in God, then talk to Him." But no, we could lose our jobs if we said such a thing! What has this world come to? I'm not saying we should force the word of God on anyone who doesn't believe, but let us talk about it with those who do believe. For the past few days I have not felt like writing anything on Epinions. Why waste my time writing a review on cold cream, a book, or the restaurant we visited last week. All I could think about was that I wanted to write about my thoughts about this tragedy. When I logged on to Epinions yesterday the first article I saw in the list of new reviews was this topic. My children were playing and I knew I couldn't concentrate on writing what I thought with all of the noise. So I waited until this morning to put down my thoughts. I have written all of this from the top of my head. I didn't need to compose a rough draft. I knew what I wanted to say and I could say so much more. I was actually thinking about writing all of this under "Washington, DC" just so I could express myself. Not even caring who might rate me NH for writing in the wrong category. Again, that's another petty thing that is not important anymore! Keep your heads high, take care of your families, pray to God, donate what you can, and have faith in the President and his decisions that he will make over the following weeks, months, and years. Our lives are in God's and President Bush's hands. GOD BLESS AMERICA...LAND OF THE FREE  |
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