9/11: 20 YEARS LATER
By Fabian Osuna
Tuesday September 11, 2001 started a calm sunny day in New York City. By 9 AM ET it became a scene out of a war movie. The twin towers, the pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania were all attacked by terrorist group Al Qaeda. By 11 am that day nearly 3,000 people passed away. That day has gone down in history as the deadliest attack on US soil.
I was born on June 2nd 2004, nearly 33 months after the attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. The oldest member of the East Tech class of 2022 was born on October 1st, 2003, a little less than 25 months after the attack. The class of 2022 is only the 3rd class to have been born in a world post the attacks. I wanted to tell this story that we have been told so many times in our lifetime but in a new way. We know this attack for it’s statistics and the facts we’ve heard multiple times over. I wanted to tell the personal stories of people who were there to experience that day. On Peacock there is a documentary called “Memory Box: Echoes Of 9/11” where people who were at The World Trade Center and Pentagon or people who lost loved ones on that devastating day in 2001. I wanted to do my own interviews. I interviewed various teachers around the school so they can put their input into that day, the thoughts in their heads, etc. Here’s what I heard.
Ms. Rawson, East Tech Achievement Coach, Journalism Teacher
Ms. Rawson is my journalism teacher. I wanted to ask her because I know at the time of 9/11 she was a teacher and she was the closest teacher to me at the time so I wanted to ask her first.
“What was that day like”
Ms. Rawson was a counselor in Oakland, California at the time. At the time they had national news on the TV and radio news. She was living with her mother at the time because her father had passed away. She wanted to take care of her mother especially in her time of mourning. At the time of the attack she thought it was a bombing similar to the 1993 World Trade Center. While watching the news there was a slow realization that there were people jumping out of the towers. She at the time obviously couldn’t comprehend what was fully going on.
“Was there any fear that the same was going to happen in the bay area?”
At the time there was lots of fear that the same was about to happen to big cities. 2 big cities in New York City and Washington DC were already hit so it was thought that there would be more attacks in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. It was especially scary at the time because planes weren’t immediately grounded after that first plane and there were no school closures even though it was almost 6 AM when the first plane hit.
“What was the feeling in the air like at the time?”
At the time the biggest feelings were shock and confusion, they didn’t know what was fully going on but they knew something was seriously wrong. From the moment she and the students got to school, they were put into a shelter in place so nobody can come in and nobody can leave. All lanes in North America were forced to be grounded in the closest airport for them. Teachers had to reach out to the families of students affected to make sure everything was okay and there wasn’t anything to worry about.
“Was there anyone in your life directly affected by the tragedy?”
She happily doesn’t know anybody who passed away on the sad day, however she did tell me that she knows people who were in New York at the time of the attack. She did say however that she knows people who are currently suffering from illnesses that were caused by the smoke inhalation from when the towers collapsed.
Dr. Elmore, Medical Program Teacher
What was the day like?
At the time when the plane hit the tower she was in bed watching the today show. They said that a plane hit the world trade center but they made it seem like it was some kind of prop plane that hit it, not a huge commercial plane. She looks up to the TV and she sees that there is a huge hole on the side of the tower and realizes that it wasn’t a small prop plane as she first believed. She was watching the news as the second plane hit the second tower and right when she saw that the second plane hit she realized exactly what was going on. She was glued to the tv as most of the country was at try time and she ended up watching the first tower collapse.
What was the feeling in the air like?
The feeling in the air was just shock, at the time there was a new hospital opening up in Elko county where she was at the time. She was in charge of making sure to prepare the rooms for the patients that were about to be transferred into the hospital. She passed by one of the empty rooms in the hospital and saw 3 men crying because of what happened. Nobody wanted to be at work that day everyone wanted to be at home where they felt their safest
Do you know anyone who lost their lives on that day?
She luckily doesn’t know anybody who lost their lives that day however she did know of a teacher in the school district she was in that was in one of the adjacent towers at the time of the attack. She knew of people who sadly died however she didn’t personally know anyone.
Bonus Information
She also told me that her youngest son who’s an officer in the navy. At the time he was 12 and he was home with her. He decided after college he was going to go into the navy and when Dr. Elmore asked why he made that decision he said “I’ll never forget how I felt on 9/11. I always knew I was going to do something to make sure I kept the world safer.” It was a big change because she has a son who guards this country and hopefully helps prevent attacks like these. So even if it’s just a little bit of something I would like to thank and salute Dr. Elmore’s son for his service.
Ms. Key, Freshman Studies & Health Teacher
What was that day like?
She was teaching in Ohio when 9/11 happened, at the time they didn’t know what was going on because news wasn’t as easily accessible in school. At the time they had TV’s in their rooms for morning news and announcements but nothing really other than that. Then the administration told the teachers to turn on their TV’s to show what was going on. It was about 9:10-9:15 and they caught the second plane hitting the second tower. Her and the kids of course were confused because they didn’t know what was going on. Then the news reporters were talking about a terrorist attack and the kids got scared and sad. They then hear a scream because a teacher down the hall had a daughter in one of the towers. She realized that when the tower was hit by a plane she started freaking out. They kept watching until they realized that watching this all unfold was doing more harm than good so they turned it off and they started asking if they had family in New York. At the time nothing really processed that this was a huge event and history will be changed forever due to this.
What was the feeling in the air like?
There was a sense of sadness but mostly panic because they didn’t know what was going on, they didn’t know how to process, they didn't know if they had relatives or friends there. There were just many questions of what was going on. They would end up finding out many people in the school had relatives in New York, in the towers, the planes, and emergency workers. The teacher was calling but she couldn’t get a hold of anyone because the phone grid shut down to the mass amount of people trying to call to make sure everything was alright. As a teacher also there was a panic because you don’t know how to help the kids especially in an event like this.
Was our country really that United after 9/11?
She remembers a lot of anti-Middle eastern hate. People were scared of people who even looked middle eastern. They were talked down to, looked at weird, it was a lot of hate toward a community that deserved none of it. There were a lot of random hate crimes that took place, on the news you saw a lot of things that shouldn’t have taken place. A lot of families of victims were a big problem in this hate because they just wanted revenge on the people they felt took their loved ones from them. They’re was a lot of hate and a lot of things that shouldn’t have happened. So even though it was said that the country came together there was still a big population of people that wasn’t part of that.
Final thoughts
9/11 was a very sad day in history. It’s a day that there’s no black and white to. There are so many different perspectives and points of view on the day. There’s still so many unanswered questions from that day, so many thoughts and feelings. No matter how you feel or on what side of the political spectrum you’re on, we can all agree that this is a day that shouldn’t have happened and we need to fight as a country to avoid something like this from ever happening again.