RESPONSE

A beautiful and wise friend of mine wrote this in response to my blog about DR. KING...

I always think about how our kids will never know a pre-9/11 world. Will that tragedy be nothing more to them then the JFK assassination is for us? Or Pearl Harbor? Those two events created this common bond between people from all walks of life in each generation. Everyone in our parents generation remembers where they were and how they felt when they heard the news of JFK's death. Just as 9/11 has become that common ground and bonding point for our generation. My Dad was in school in the lab when he found out about JFK, my Mom was much younger but remembered watching the funeral on tv.

On 9/11- I was peacefully sleeping in my tiny sorority house bedroom when the phone rang and my mom informed me of the first plane hitting, while we were on the phone I remember "Oh my God Meghann, another plane just hit the other tower! I think we might be under attack". 30 seconds later I had roused the rest of the happily sleeping sorority girls and we all gathered around the tv. No one in our generation will ever forget that moment, because it was the first time that it ever occurred to us that we might not be safe in our own country. As Pearl Harbor and JFK and MLK Jr, were pivotal moments in those time periods - those main events you can point to and say "This is where is all changed", 9/11 is our pivotal moment- when we stopped and took stock, and were forced to really and truly evaluate our lives, our culture, and our country.

In all of us, memories of 9/11 are still clear, the repercussions and impact of that day are still resounding through us like a gong. But what will our children hear? Echoes of time past- what it used to be like? That won't help, they will not have a concept of the shock and fear of that day, and it won't be their fault. Until 9/11, we and our parents, had no concept of what Pearl Harbor felt like to our grandparents. We knew what happened, the historical significance of it- but we didn't know what if felt like.

Not that I ever want my children to feel that shock and fear- I hope that I can instill in them some appreciation of it, because my worst fear of all is - what will their pivotal moment be?