World Trade Center and Pentagon Terrorist Attacks, 2009 Update
Last year we were winning 7-0; now it’s 8-0.
I show no mercy - none - to the folks in education who say that NCLB, various teaching/administrative/reform initiatives, etc. inspire “terror” in children or that their practitioners are “terrorists.” On this point, I am almost entirely alone in terms of vocal, specific criticism.
Watch the video embedded in my re-post below - you’ll see why I never, ever let it slide.
[Originally posted in September, 2008]
We’re winning 7-0, and I’d like to go for the shutout.
I don’t really use the phrases “9/11″ or “September 11.” Instead, I refer to the events 7 years ago today as what they were - a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the United States. I understand that “9/11″ and the like are shorthand; it’s a convenient way to refer to a complex event. But I don’t bother with the day for the same reason I don’t say “December 25″ when I really mean Christmas.
Mark Steyn has reprinted his September 12, 2001 column called “A War for Civilization” and added a bit of perspective - it demands a careful read, and should be read annually.
For those of you who don’t yet read Evan Coyne Maloney’s Brain Terminal, start with his brilliant, harrowing ‘Hell on Earth’ essay. Then watch the video memorial Crystal Morning, edited from David Vogler’s footage:
I got a package in the mail from my brother about two days after the attacks [it was beef jerky and apple cider]. It included this note:
As I read this it makes me tear up, because it makes it all real all over again. It was just yesterday that the twin towers were here and now they are gone. And all the people that lost their lives. I am very sorry it wasn’t very clear if you lost your brother in this. However if I would have received a letter like this from my brother two days after wards it would give me chills. I am scared every day that something like this is going to happen again. I hope that the president finally has all of this under control. However I really don’t think so, because he hasn’t really fixed anything for us, but make everything worse. But all in all I am very sorry if you lost your brother because this could have been prevented somehow I think.