Senior year of high school...1st period...Mr. Ankrom's Principles of Democracy class at Manchester High School.
A fellow student came in at the bell and said a plane had crashed in N.Y.C. Mr. Ankrom turned on the classroom television, and soon thereafter we watched the second jet collide. My teacher immediately began attempting to contact his wife (a flight attendent heading for D.C. that morning). I remember the bell ringing and nobody moved. We were dismissed early for the day, but nobody moved. We sat there in that classroom the entire day and watched the events unfold. We monitored the flight path of Flight 93 as it flew overheard and then turned just west of town and headed towards Pennsylvania. I remember being in the middle of a discussion on the attack when the first tower came down and the complete silence after. I remember teachers passing their cellphones around (not many high schoolers had them a decade ago) so that we could contact our parents concerning the safety of relatives who lived/worked in NYC.
Last night I thought about 9/11, and the military actions following, and the civilian and military lives lost or severely altered. And I thought about what I needed to do today. I decided on what I do every Sunday. I woke up and read the newspaper (unbiased by government propaganda or censorship). I went to the church of my choice and worshiped a God of my choosing. I ordered a controversial book from Amazon.com without having to worry about a government ban. I went to the local NRA range and shot 10 rounds through MY rifle preparing for antelope season in less than a month. And tonight I will go sit in my treestand, on OUR public lands, and just maybe harvest one of OUR public resources (a dry whitetail doe). Ten years later these liberties remain intact!
