My Dearest Chace,
I am writing this letter to you on
September
15th, 2001 to tell you about my feelings during this very
chaotic and
distressing week. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, you were home sick
with strep
throat. You were quite upset that you had to stay home from school
because you
felt better and you didn’t want to miss "Big Play Day". Every
Tuesday, you get to take a toy to school to share with your friends.
Anyway, on
this particular morning, right after we got up before 9:00, Kelly
called me and
asked me if I had the TV on, I said no, she said Oh, Turn it on!! When
I turned
it on, I could not believe my eyes and what the news people were
saying.
One of the towers of the World Trade Center was burning, they said a plane hit it. I was like, you’ve got to be kidding! Then, as I was watching, the other plane flew right into the other tower. That is something I will NEVER forget, I can only imagine how horrifying it must have been to see it in person. Then, a little later, another plane flew into the Pentagon. Wow! It was unbelievable. It still is, 4 days after the fact. I feel so badly for all of the people in the city. We are living in New York, but we are upstate and often I feel like New York City is a completely different state from the rest of New York. It is an awesome city, however, it is now forever changed by the events of this week. When we went down in June, we visited the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and walked around downtown. I remember looking up at the World Trade Center and thinking, Well, we can go up there next time we come. Now, that is an impossibility. I am sure that they will build them back, but it will not be the same. Never more will Americans like us take such an amazing building and landmark for granted. Never again will we think that we are safe from such terrible acts of terrorism. Before all this happened, I could care less about watching the news, now it is like I am glued to the screen. The television networks still have not returned to normal programming. All sporting events have been cancelled or postponed, the Emmy’s were postponed. The whole country is in mourning for all the thousands who died in the attacks. Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance. At noon, everyone, everywhere stopped what they were doing for a moment of silence. Then, at nightfall all over the country, candles were lit in remembrance of those who died. Yes, even you. I know you are too young to understand why this happened. I don’t even understand it. Terrorism is scary and it is evil. The people who did this had their own agenda and wanted to get the U.S.’s attention, well they did alright. Now, we are about to fight back. It looks like we are going to go to war as soon as we make certain who our target is. When I told you that, you asked me "You mean, war with bazookas, machine guns and tanks?" I said yes, probably. Your next question was "Is Dad going to have to go? I don’t want him to!" Luckily, I was able to say no, that Dad is staying right here with us where it is relatively safe. We are on shore duty which means that Dad will not be going out to sea to fight the enemy. I wholeheartedly believe in our military fighting back, but like you, I don’t want Dad to go either! We are a military family, live in military housing and have to abide by all their rules like centralized parking, 100% ID checks and no mail for a couple of days, but that’s okay, as long as those I love are safe! I have created this scrapbook for you and our future generations, so you may know what the world was liek your 2nd week of 1st grade. I hope that your generation makes more sense of this than ours can. I have included many photos, articles and poems so that you can see the emotions behind the headlines.
God Bless America and you my sweet boy!
I love you, Mom