My students and I preserved a blue-sky day with its shimmering golden ginkgo tree. As we focused on our lesson planning task, who else besides me wondered if someone they loved was fighting for their lives?
Who else was imagining the near-distant place?
Who else was replacing the blue sky with smoke, the sunlight with debris?
Those outside the classroom, those in hijacked airplanes and burning buildings didn't have the chance to ignore the outside world. Suddenly, without warning, they confronted Hamlet’s “not to be.” Some sat on airplanes and made phone calls, alerting authorities and family members to the hijacking. Others in the towers sought fresh air and an escape from the heat and smoke. They pushed toward openings and pried open elevators. They searched for open stairways and lifted debris off fallen colleagues.
Some jumped or fell.
The firefighters who entered the towers were trained for this work. They climbed toward the fire and relayed information. They reassured people who were panicking. They carried those they could evacuate. The passengers of United flight 93 recognized their stark choice and with “let’s roll” courage fought for their lives and for ours. The attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 nations: 2,753 people were killed in New York in and around the World Trade Towers and on American flight 11 and United flight 175; 184 people were killed at the Pentagon and on American Flight 77; and 40 people were killed on United Flight 93 which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Also killed in the attacks were the 19 Al Qaeda terrorists.
To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause
But there was no pause.
The horror quickly turned political. The Bush Administration's nonsensical response: “a war against terror.” In Manhattan, people protested this response. I considered marching alongside them, but crowds and New York City itself felt unsafe to me.
To die—to sleep, No more.
HVWP COMMONPLACE 18
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