I was still teaching middle school math and science in 2001. Newly married during the summer, starting a new school year with a great group of kids and an outstanding team of teachers, I felt that we were off to a great start.
Fifteen minutes into the school day, the assistant principal unexpectedly interrupted the morning routine: "Turn on your televisions now." We did, just in time to see the second plane slam into one of the towers.
We were all in disbelief for a while. Then shock set in. The towers fell. People ran. The images started to repeat. A few students asked to go call parents in the airline industry or other relatives in D.C. or New York. A few parents came to pick up children.
I changed my lesson plans from my usual interactive fare to a routine worksheet the students could do without thinking too much- many were too shocked to function well. I let them talk at will, and shut off the television after less than an hour. It was one of the quietest days in my room, even though the kids could talk freely. The students coming later in the day were relieved to find a refuge of quiet; the social studies teacher left her television on all day.
I don't believe adolescents (or adults for that matter) need to be continually bombarded with horror, no matter how "historic" it is. They need to know the facts, and they need to remember them.
Christians do not believe that everyone is fundamentally good, and we all really worship our own "inner light", and as long as you're sincere, you're O.K. If we read the Bible, we know that all men, all human beings, are fundamentally lost. We all tend by choice to do the wrong thing, the cruel thing, the inhumane and unjust thing if we gain power to do it, and we are not fully in Christ. Most of us don't have command of an airplane when we're unjustly fired from a job, or we see others with privileges we do not share, or a gun in our hands when we see our child hurt by another. Thank God for that.
The freedom and balance of powers in America set up by our Christian and Deist founding fathers (even the Deists knew more scripture and had a more Bible-shaped world view than most church attendees have now) must continue. They are not outdated, nor should they "evolve" to reflect a modern amoral worldview. We have to continue holding up a lamp beside the open door for the huddled masses out there. I'm not saying America is a Christian nation. That ended, especially in academia, a long time ago. I am saying that the freedoms we share are based in a Christian system of beliefs and ethics we cannot reject without devastation. All human efforts to gain Heaven without Christ end in a fireball, no matter how good our intentions. We must remember, and remain free, and fight to help others achieve freedom as well. That is the right remembrance for this day.
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