9/11 Who Can Forget?

Image source, Louie Lighting

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11,

Who Can Forget?

Our nation’s loss of innocence,

a class parents’ meeting at elementary school,

the nurse whispering in the principal’s ear,

one mom fleeing upon hearing the news

implementing the emergency call system,

watching annihilation in real time,

screaming and crying at the t.v.,

clinging to my three-month old baby,

rushing my triplet seven year olds home,

my son vowing to become a soldier,

praying for my husband who worked in Manhattan,

fielding concerned calls from across the country,

learning that a friend ran to the city to canvas hospitals

while her children stayed at a neighbor’s

for days,

hugging my husband when he walked in the door,

witnessing smoke curling into the heavens

from an altered skyline,

passing empty cars in parking lots,

working at a childrens boutique,

crying with customers who were dressing their children

for parents’ funerals,

learning whose spouses came home

and whose didn’t,

attending the funeral for my friend’s husband,

and recognizing how unspeakable horror

wreaks everlasting destruction

on hearts, minds and lives.

Stunning Short Film–Terror and Resilience

Dome of the Rock, also know as Al-Haram al Sharif, Jerusalem, Israel

Arab souk (market), Jerusalem, Israel

The two times I toured Israel were intense, emotional, amazing experiences. The Dome of the Rock, or Al-Haram al-Sharif, stands head and shoulders above Jerusalem while the Arab market’s sellers, locals and tourists scurry like mice under the watchful eyes of Israeli soldiers.

Although I usually add upbeat lifestyle posts to Bmore Energy , on occasion I add serious ones.

After I viewed Vitals, a 5-minute documentary filmed in Jerusalem, about Hananel David, an Israeli who survived a knife attack, I knew I wanted to share it. The film, directed by friend Jake Oleson, a talented filmmaker whose work I’ve featured before, is stunning.

I hope you’ll watch it.

Wishing you–and our world–peace in 2016.

Naomi

Directed by Jake Oleson, Cinematography by Todd Martin, Produced by Alon Simcha, Animation by Casey Drogin, Original Music by Matthew Kidd, Commissioned by Magen David Adom.

 

9/11: Horror and Homework

Liberty State Park, NJ

Liberation Monument by Natan Rappaport, Liberty State Park, NJ

My daughter came home with an assignment to interview a parent about 9/11.

Anyone not comfortable with the assignment could pass.  Lucky for me that, although the subject gives me a lump in my throat and makes my heart race, I didn’t have to pass.

I give my daughter’s middle school teacher credit for opening up a discussion on a touchy subject and allowing her to turn over in her mind what happened right here

in the city where her father worked,

where her aunt witnessed the horror as it happened,

where her sisters’ friend’s father was killed,

where her yoga teacher’s brother-in-law was killed,

where a neighbor’s husband was killed,

where longtime customers of the store her mother worked at shopped for funeral clothes,

and what the catalyst was that created a desire in her 7 year-old brother to join the Army,

when she was only 3 months old, new to the world, and her mother wondered how she would raise a baby with so much hatred in the world, and her mother worried that life as she knew it might never be the same.

Some of the teacher’s thought-provoking questions are:

1.  Why do you think the terrorists chose the World Trade Center?

2.  If it were up to you, would you have the towers rebuilt?

3.  Have the events that took place on 9/11 changed your life?  How so?

4.  During the months immediately following the attacks, a lot of people sported American flags on their cars, t-shirts and houses.  Why do you think that it takes an act of terrorism to bring a country together?  Why aren’t we united and patriotic like this all of the time?

I’d love to hear your answers to any or all of the questions.

Flag of Honor

My son and me at an ROTC dinner.

Proud Dad and sister flank our Army cadet.