Thursday, April 21, 2005

September 11: Bearing Witness to History


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

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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I saw that exhibit at the Smithsonian a few years ago, so I know what you mean. It's kind of a downer. Since my grandma died that very day, it's especially etched in my memory.