Silent Tribute

As the scenes of 9/11 are re-lived through television and web news/documentaries and as I take media inquiries on how we are beginning to include lessons about 9/11 into our curriculum, I stop to remember those horrible days 10 years ago. 

How can we objectively present an event that scarred our collective psyche just 10 years ago?  I remember the moment it happened.  I know what I smelled, what I heard, who I was with, where we were going...I remember crying until my eyes were red and swollen.  I remember not being able to get through on the phone to the folks back in Texas (we were on the East Coast), I remember the sick feeling when I realized we should have been in the World Trade Center tower 2 when the plane hit but changed our plans that morning.

Munchkin just turned 9.  Last weekend, there was a host of shows about 9/11 on tv and, naturally, she asked about it.  I got out the newspapers and Time magazine I kept and looked through some of the pictures with her.  I told her about Flight 93 and the courageous passengers who fought to the end.  I told her about driving past the Pentagon just 24 hours before and having no idea what was coming. 

How can I really explain what that day did to us as a nation? 
How can I tell her in a way that honors those who died that day? 

I imagine our grandparents pondering the same things about Pearl Harbor.