September 11: Bearing Witness to History

Flag found in the debris of the Twin Towers (CLICK ON TITLE ABOVE)

Tonight we took the boys to the Washington State History Museum. They had a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian dealing with the September 11 attacks. It was very moving. They had photos of all the crash sites, of course, but they also had objects saved from the Pentagon and the Twin Towers. Nothing larger than a phone book exists from the Pennsylvania crash site. There was also a 10-minute film about the news coverage that day. We were on the road that day traveling home from a trip, so we didn’t get to watch much of the tv coverage. It was very moving to see Peter Jennings break up.

At the end there was a place where you could write your impressions of the day on a card. They would possibly display it there, and would definitely add it to the Smithsonian’s collection. Jeremy decided he wanted to do one. He drew a picture of the towers. One tower was on fire and a plane was heading for the second. He wrote that he was watching cartoons and them someone changed the channel to the coverage. I was surprised at the detail he gave. He was only 4 years old.

Georgia on My Mind

Mike and I went to St. Simon's Island, Georgia for a seminar. We flew into Florida (so I could say I've been there) and drove up to Georgia. This picture shows Fort Frederica. The fort was built as a buffer zone between the English colonies and Spanish Florida. It is of great importance to Methodists as it was where John and Charles Wesley came to be missionaries. They were utter failures!
The picture shows part of the fort in the background. The foreground shows the walls of the storehouse that was also used as the church. (Click on the title for more info on the fort.)