Perspective
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The explosion from the second plane
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I always like these days more. The days where I don’t have to ride the bus to school. It smells weird, as if they were done using a garbage truck and decided, hey this would make a great bus for elementary kids. No, these days are better. No weird smells, well, maybe my little brother but his stench is at least bearable. Normally at this point my mother is drilling us about our homework. Did we get it done? Are we lying that we got it done? Well then where is it? You know, mom questions, but today she is very quiet. She pulls into school, gives us a kiss and we get out ready to conquer the day!
Within seconds, one of my friends approaches me, obviously noticing my cool new shirt. “Hey did you hear about the twin towers?” He asks me. The Lord of the Rings? I think to myself, “You mean the Two Towers?” He gets a confused look on his face and is about to answer but the bell rings so we run to class.
Within seconds, one of my friends approaches me, obviously noticing my cool new shirt. “Hey did you hear about the twin towers?” He asks me. The Lord of the Rings? I think to myself, “You mean the Two Towers?” He gets a confused look on his face and is about to answer but the bell rings so we run to class.
The Famous Falling Man
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My 4th grade teacher, Ms. S, finally enters the classroom, she is 10 minutes late and we need to get started going over yesterday’s math assignment. Instead of going to the board and writing equations down, she goes to the dusty old television in the corner of the room and turns it on. Confused, the class stares at the TV expectantly. At first, there is only static but slowly the picture comes into focus. A very large building appears on the screen. A steady stream of thick smoke is seeping out from one of the floors on the building. The bottom of the screen reads “Plane crashes into the World Trade Center.” I am still very confused at this point. What does this have to do with math? Is this a documenta- a second plane hits the other tower. The explosion takes my breath away and leaves my hands shaky and sweaty. What is going on? The cameraman is now zooming in for a closer look at the two towers and I can see people jumping from one of the towers, hand in hand. As they fall my heart goes with them.
I have confirmed this is not a documentary. The television has now been on for over an hour, one of the towers have fallen in a horrific spectacle. Many students have already been called out of class and sniffles can be heard from behind Ms. S’s desk. Most of the children are still staring at the television confused. The |
second building begins to collapse. I turn my head but I cannot block out the sounds of destruction that fill my ears. That destruction carries through my ears to my eyes and they are beginning to water.
People jumping to their deaths to escape the smoke encasing them. Buildings collapsing crushing thousands beneath them and covering a beautiful city with dust. Families are losing loved ones because a mad man wanted to stick it to the U.S. What is going on? Only a few hours ago I was fretting about which shirt would be best and now the entire world has been flipped upside down. I just want to leave, I just want to leave. Just like that my angel of a Mother appears to take me out of school but she cannot take me away from the things that I have seen. Perspective is a strange thing. That morning my skateboard shirt was the most important thing in the world to me but now? Now it is just cloth.
People jumping to their deaths to escape the smoke encasing them. Buildings collapsing crushing thousands beneath them and covering a beautiful city with dust. Families are losing loved ones because a mad man wanted to stick it to the U.S. What is going on? Only a few hours ago I was fretting about which shirt would be best and now the entire world has been flipped upside down. I just want to leave, I just want to leave. Just like that my angel of a Mother appears to take me out of school but she cannot take me away from the things that I have seen. Perspective is a strange thing. That morning my skateboard shirt was the most important thing in the world to me but now? Now it is just cloth.