A Father Remembering Tragedy
I know what I was doing 11 years ago on September 11th, 2001. I know where I was and even as I write these words for the very first time I have a feeling of great sorrow for all that we lost as a world. I am part of a generation that will always remember tragedy and misfortune in ways that my grandparents remember Pearl Harbor. It reminds me that sometimes as a parent we have to remember the world isn’t always a safe place and as a father it can bring a tear to my eye for my son.
I write this today, as a record, that all tragedy must end. I write this in hopes that our children will inherit a better world than the one I grew I up in. I am old enough to remember watching multiple tragedies unfold live on television. I am unsure if this make me lucky or cursed. My hope is that you will read this to remember the lives lost for the sake of our children and their futures.
back row, left to right: Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judy Resnik. front row, left to right: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair.
January 28, 1986
It was a typical January day in Southwest, Oklahoma (warm with no snow.) I was in Ms. Powell’s, high school, English class. We were going to have a rare treat that day and our class was combining with the science class to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. I remember sitting at my desk and talking with friends while Ms. Powell told us to please be quiet (of course none of us listened) as they readied the television. It was a big school event because a teacher,Christa McAuliffe, was going into space.
When they finally got the television ready we actually paid attention as a class. As a nation, we all watched as the Space Shuttle broke apart a few minutes into the launch. I remember Ms. Powell walking over and quickly turning off the television and crying. The classroom was overall silent except for a few tears. The silence broke by an announcement over the intercom from our principal telling us what we already knew the Space Shuttle had crashed.
A Tragedy Memorial By: PunkToad
April 19, 1995
Time moved forward but I didn’t leave Southwest, Oklahoma. In April of 1995 I was working at Sears as a manager in the hardware department. As a manager, one of my duties was to open up the store and today was my turn. I remember unlocking the doors of the various entrances but I stopped at electronics because something had caught my eye. Other employees were all gathering in front of the televisions and they were whispering, it was 9:15 in the morning. I fell to the floor as I discovered a bomb had gone off in downtown Oklahoma City where my father was working.
We watched the first live pictures before any of the nation or the world saw the Murrah building tragedy. I knew my father was in downtown Oklahoma City and I didn’t know if he was alive (we didn’t have cell phone back then.) I tried to call my mother but the phone lines were busy and I waited patiently all day until my dad walked into Sears late that afternoon. I kissed, hugged and told my father I loved him. I wish I could say that everything turned out well from that event but it didn’t. We had a friend that lost his wife and their unborn child on that day.
A World Remembers
September 11, 2011
My wife and I left Oklahoma a few years after that (we recently moved back) and lived in Kansas City. We would often travel back to visit family and friends and see life in a small military town. The world for everyone changed on 9-11-01. On the day the world changed we were home again visiting friends. My wife and I were watching Good Morning America getting ready for the day when a Special Report came in from New York. As I look back now it all seems surreal. I remember talking to Melissa as it was happening.
“Is that real?”
“Did a second plane just fly into the other tower?”
“OH MY GOD!”
and I am man enough to admit to you that I cried.
Tragedy needs to end for our kids
I don’t want to see any more tragedy in my life and sadly I didn’t even list all of them I have seen on television live. As a father, I don’t want to give my son any more tragedy. I know that we will never all get along because it’s not in our nature but I truly believe we owe it to ourselves and our children to at least try.
January 28th, 1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger – 7 Crew Members Lost
April 19th, 1995 – Alfred P. Murrah Bombing – 168 Lost
September 11th, 2001 - September 11 Attacks – Nearly 3000 Lost
All of these tragedies are terrible things. Do you remember exactly what you were doing on 9-11? Please share your memories in the comments!!
Tags: grandparents, launch, misfortune, pearl harbor, science class, southwest oklahoma, space shuttle challenger, teacher christa mcauliffe
I was 12 in Nov 1963 and on Friday 22nd was coming home from School when I heard about JFK. It was awfulas many of us identified with him as we had with no other President. He was young and personable and said things about peace that sounded good. That day you lost a President and I lost some of my innocence.
Of the three occasions you write about…..It sounds terrible but the first two events had no real impact on my day since I was working and unaware of the new. The third one did since the news broke in the office soon after the event happened. A terrible accident was what we thought as we heard of the first plane hitting then something more sinister after the second.
As the story unfolded hour after hour and day after day we all realised just how little conscience Al Quaeda had. Happy to involve non-combatants and to take innocent lives. This was the reality of how far the terrorists were prepared to go.
We’d already suffered our own terrorist problem with the IRA bomb in Warrington. Germany had the Baader Meinhof gang but nothing on this scale. I knew that the terrorists had to be stopped but I also pulled up short at the wave of hate that poured out against Islam most of who’s followers were as shocked and angry as us.It would be like me hating all the Irish.
We nee to give children like Xander a chance and it’s up to us not him to achieve it. We caused many of the problems and we must heal them. It’s time to withdraw troops from Countries where we’re not welcome anyway and allow the population to sort out their problems. Dictators can only go so far before they’re overthrown and good people step into the breach. But, even if they don’t we have no right to expect any other country to run itself along our lines just because it suits us. We need a non-interference pact and friendships to be built which can ensure a lasting peace.
No more throwing the lives of our young away.
David,
I couldn’t agree more! I couldn’t add any more to make your comment anymore perfect than what you have written. Thank you so very, very much for taking the time to write such a long and wonderfully written comment my friend….
Aaron
Aaron, What a wonderful message; would it be so. I fear however it will not be in our children’s, or grandchildren’s lifetimes. We may become more sensitive to the horrible violence we visit upon one another. Things like the “Challenger,” explosion and later, the “Columbia” disaster, which hit so closely home for me, as I could see it from Tampa as it lifted into space from Titusville, Florida, it was so clear that day, we may never truly stem. Such is the price for exploration. I would dare say that the courageous men and women who ride in those rockets would do so no matter what the price. They are are Last Frontier Explorers, after all. What we are mourning is a tragedy that has no meaning in the larger sense. It is not furthering a science. It is not enlarging upon a cause. What we are experiencing is the sense of loss and bewilderment at the cruelties that are visited upon the human race for the basest of reasons. I am old enough to remember the assassination of JFK. I was in the 2nd grade and had a teacher who was originally from Germany, West Berlin. She had been so proud, when JFK had spoken in West Berlin and given his famous “Ich bin Ein Berliner” speech. We took German for weeks. I remember his murder as a very, very dark time; it is also closely associated with around the time my mother tried to take her own life, and at age 7, things are muddled. The country literally shut down for 3 solid days. My father stayed home from work and cried in front of the TV. People crept about. I know that national mourning is a great unifier and it also brings a sense of cultural memory that is cohesive. “Where were you on…?” conversations were common. Unfortunately, the 60s were fraught with that. Everything from race riots (Watts, which we could actually see) to the killings of Martin Luther King, Jr. to Robert Kennedy, Jr. 2 months later. This was 1968, a watershed year, and a year that is so pivotal in my memory. I cannot help but think that the death of JFK really did change the course of our country, and not for the better. No one person is ever a panacea to a nation’s ills, but we needed him for that time. LBJ, as gifted a Legislator as he was and as passionate as he was in making sure JFK’s domestic policies and Civil Rights agendas were pushed ahead, was truly abysmal with foreign policy and allowed himself to be used by unscrupulous people. I don’t need to tell you that what we always try to do is leave a world behind that is better, whether it is for our children, or others. People think that Hillary Clinton is ridiculous for saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” I say, “Yes, it does.” It actually takes more than that. It takes the world. I’m part of that, Aaron. Thank you. That’s a wonderful thing; together we can all leave a better place for kids, like Xander, so he doesn’t have to cry over the cruelties and hate. Mary <3
I hope so Mary! I truly hope my son and all children get a better world to live in. I wrote the post not concentrating on just terror but the shameless, senseless use of media to exploit death (in my opinion) I could also say I was a child and remember 3 Mile Island on television (thank god no deaths) and I remember the Guyana Tragedy on television….plus the Tsunami ….I understand mourning and grief better than most…I understand the process and the steps of loss but I fear that the media perpetuates the situations and makes them worse for society….just my two cents of course….
Aaron
I remember where I was–in the breakroom of a preschool I worked in and I watched it happen on TV. I was stunned to see the first plane crash and thought it had to be a hoax until the second plane. I cried all day at my current boyfriend’s house after leaving work. I will never forget it. Sadly, our children will experience more terrors like this, because the world is a cruel, sadistic place, and there are people who are always scheming for the next big event that leads to loss of life. Very depressing.
It hit me like a ton of bricks Amberr. We were home visiting (of course it’s a huge military base, Ft. Sill) the city was unrecognizable when we drove back to where we were living in Kansas City. They shut off all the gates to the post and this town survives off of Ft. Sill it is a very inter-related relationship between the two and traffic was backed up for miles to get on to post. the only way I can ever describe what i saw in Lawton, Oklahoma during those 3 days after was like a dream like state or a horror movie. I thought it was bad after the Murrah building (and trust me it was…they originally thought it was terrorist until they discovered it was homegrown terrorist with blonde hair and blue eyes….terror knows no color and most Oklahoman’s that lived through both understand that)
Aaron
Daniel,
They are unnecessary tragedies….even the Space Shuttle one could have been prevented as i recall with proper maintenance. They had some finding on it before hand that showed the o-ring failure was a possibility in colder temperatures (there was frost that morning if i recall correctly)
Aaron
Hello. My name is Silvia, I live in Portugal, am 39 yo and I can relate to all you write about here. Though I was just a 13 yo teenager back on 1986, I remember the Challenger tragedy vividly because my younger brother loved everything Nasa and Space related so much (he dreamed of becoming an astronaut). I too cried seing the images and later hearing about the families they left behind.
I also remember what I was doing on September 11th 2011. I was at my University’s library, with some friends, studying for an exam later that day. Here in Portugal was just about 2 p.m. when I noticed every cell phone around the studying room began to bip with messages and calls. Mine was no exception. I received an sms from a friend saying the US were under attack. We quietly went down to the students bar and through the noisy, still unaware crowd, I could see the images of the Twin Towers displayed on the TV hanging on the farther way wall… We couldn’t understand what was happening, so we looked for a quieter place with a tv so that we could understand what was going on. We casually passed by the student’s association game room and a mega tv was on, only one person sitting on the sofa in front of it, staring. We called through the safety handrails and the young boy came and let us in. We (3 girls) just sit on the sofas and stayed there not really believing what we were seeing and first thought it had been an accident and the plane had crashed into the tower. Suddenly… we all saw that second plane blowing as it hit the second tower as we all gasped and let out an uncontrollable “ohhhhh!?” and quickly realized that hadn’t been an accident… and just remained there in silence watching. When the first tower came down, I cried in disbelief… thinking or trying to process whatever was going on… I still have no words to describe my true feelings. It was overwhelming… it still is.
Silvia,
Thank you for sharing your stories. They are moments in time that we won’t forget quickly.
It’s amazing how these tragedies touched peoples lives around the world. As much as we don’t understand them, it made the world seem a little smaller,all of us a little bit closer and much more connected.
I pray that we learn from them and we can prevent any future tragedies of these magnitudes.
Aaron