Lest We Forget

Nine years ago today, I had no kids. My wife woke me up and told me something had happened that sounded so strange to me, I thought I must have misheard her in my sleepy haze. Sadly, I hadn’t.

As we stared at the television, wondering exactly how a passenger plane runs into a skyscraper, it happened again before our eyes. In one horrifying moment, we knew none of it had been an accident.

I still get the chills when I think about it. It was something that has changed any who witnessed it forever. Many lives were senselessly lost. Those of us who have kids now, but didn’t then, may find it difficult to explain exactly what happened.

In light of this, I’d like to recommend to you two books.

The way we initially brought the subject up to our sons was via a children’s storybook called Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman. It’s a story about a group of friends who purchased and refurbished an old fireboat and ended up helping on that fateful day.

Reading this book with them caused them to naturally ask questions. My wife and I explained to them that it was a very sad day. We told them that bad people decided to hurt other people. We did this all by responding to the questions they asked about the story and the illustrations. Needless to say, we spent more time explaining the events of September 11, 2001 than reading from the pages, but in the end, they understood that a lot of people stood together and refused to be frightened.

The book does a great job at telling children a story they’d be interested in and informing them without getting too heavy.

But, as they get older, heavy will become appropriate. To see the things that I saw and what many others saw that day will be fully appropriate. I picture them, some time in high school, looking through another book with my wife and I.

This book is Here is New York: A Democracy of Photographs. It contains nearly a thousand photographs of the events of September 11^th in New York. Some are heart-wrenching, some are uplifting and some are disturbing. In all, they create a very real and very powerful sense of what it was like to see everything. I must repeat, however, this is not a book to look at with your younger children. This is a book I keep out of their reach for a later date.

In remembrance of those who lost their lives nine years ago today, people who were taking a routine flight, people who were just trying to do an honest day’s work and people who rushed into the flames to pull others out, I think it’s important to pass on to our children exactly what happened on that day. To ignore it or keep it from them would be a mistake in my mind. If either of these two books helps you approach the subject with your child, I’ll feel I’ve done a service here.

Let us always remember.

God bless America.