this is the first year i have time to respond to this. i was teaching in an elementary school for my first year in a school in south jersey. i was so engaged with being overwhelmed with that and also a year old son and at that time a wife so i was a little more self absorbed than usual. well, anyway, i was teaching reading when the principal asked to talk to me outside of class. she said that two planes hit the towers and the pentagon was hit also. at that moment i was scared. all i was thinking about was whether or not my son and wife are safe as these are obviously choreographed attacks. i wanted to go home and be with them. however, i went back and looked around at my class and knew i am obliged to teach these kids and more importantly be level headed for them. i did not tell them about the attacks until the end of the day but some suspected something was wrong when parents came in to pick up their kids earlier than usual. during lunch and my prep, i watched all the events unfold and thinking everytime i saw it i saw may people losing their lives. i felt nauseous but compelled to learn more. my friends from college that lived in north jersey called and told me stories of knowing someone or of someone who may have been in the tower when it was hit. my town sent firemen and paramedics up there mostly to regulate the bridge. it was clearly a time that i will never forgot and the first time i felt unsure about the future of my life. we see this happen in other countries in the news and become disinterested. now it hit closer to home. i talked to my students this year about it since they were only 3 at the time and they were interested about it. i also explained how that event changed how we live in america with homeland security and traveling. i know that it is my job as a teacher to make sure that each generation do not forget the significance of that day.

Posted by GKFv2:

http://www.ultimateknicks.com/forum/topic.asp?t=183

One of the original posts from 9/11 on UK. Not many forums go this back anymore. Very eerie but I'm glad you guys kept all these topics here.

SC, I agree that they should rebuild the towers and they should rebuild the towers with the exact same look. Literally it should just be the same design and one floor higher for each. That would be a big FU to all those people who want to see fall and it would bring up the legendary buildings to the skyline. The fact that the Towers are still missing after 8 years and an empty space remains is very sad. I think it would be a definite morale booster to see the NYC skyline back up and strong again.

Well, that type of attitude is one of the things that is giving the terrorists more to hate. I thought that USA could have used the 9/11 tragedy and showed the world that the terrorists are wrong, and the Americans are not the arrogant, selfish and stupid nation that the world perceives us as. Instead we go and invade Iraq. . .

And as far as rebuilding the WTC i believe that we should have made the area into a memorial park. Making a new WTC on the same spot that so many innocent people so tragically perished is uncool and even disrespectful. Recently i read the story about the granite memorial monument that was donated but moved to "make room for construction" and later permanently moved to NJ. It truly reflects how the whole thing is being dealt with and its just sad in so many ways.

agree wtih GKFv2; something should be built there. i don't know if it should be 1 inch taller or whatever but americans aren't patsies and by doing nothing we look like a bunch of losers with a big hole 8 years later and nothing getting done.