then sealed the whole building shut.
Woosh. Thunk.
Silence.
Deep in Manhattan’s bedrock, their group stood protected by the thick metal walls of the vault and its six thousand tons of gold bars. Eventually, Kate and her husband walked home, joining the dazed throngs on the Brooklyn Bridge. Suzana’s Amtrak train had stopped and all passengers were required to disembark in a small town about an hour north of Poughkeepsie. She then found a “Rent-a-Wreck” car and made her way to our house. The next day, Suzana and I drive towards the Shawangunk mountains and hike along the trail circling Lake Minnewaska. Just like the day before, the sky is sparkling blue. The sun filters through the trees and brightens our leafy path. We stop at a ledge and look out over the valley. Before us stretches a leafy mosaic of gold, orange, and red. Out beyond are the Catskill Mountains, a lavender-hued silhouette of peaks and valleys.
Birds are singing.
Everything is the same, and everything is different.
I’ve often thought back to my choices on this day. Did I fail as a teacher? One is supposed to abandon a lesson plan when circumstances dictate.
Other teachers seemed to recognize this and took their classes to the Lecture Center. One is supposed to shape lessons that help students build bridges between the real world and the classroom. Instead, on September 11, 2001, from 8:30 - 11:20 a.m., my students and I erected a thick barrier between what was happening 80 miles south of our sunlit cocoon. We insisted that the outside world could wait until we learned how to plan lessons. To be fair, we had not seen the images or heard any newscasts. My own understanding at the time was that this was an unfortunate accident. I did not understand the hatred our country inspired. I believed we were—on the whole— a global force for good. I knew the criticisms—the hegemonic arrogance and foreign policy deceptions that brought us the Vietnam war, and I knew the history of corruption and support for dictators in Iran and South and Central America— but my gestalt perspective of our country was influenced mostly by its role in World War II and the Marshall Plan—the rebuilding of Europe and Japan and our efforts to protect human rights and democracy. Our public foreign policy goals focused on bringing peace and stability around the globe, including the Middle East where we were facilitating negotiations between Israel and Palestine.
HVWP COMMONPLACE 17
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online