By: Faith Monteiro
Last Wednesday marked the 18th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City at the twin towers. Many seniors weren’t even born yet, let alone underclassmen. That brings a big question in to play, when is the right time to stop paying respects in honoring this tragedy?
Every year here at Oliver Ames there was always a moment of silence around 8:46 a.m., the time when on September 11, 2001, an American Airlines Flight 11 that was overtaken by hijackers, crashed in floors 93-99 in the North tower 1.
But this year was different, the daily morning “Words of Wisdom” briefly talked about the attacks, and then it was the usual day.
No moment of silence.
People may make the argument that most kids in school these days were born years after 2001 so they don’t really know about that tragic day so there’s no need to have a moment of silence. But that shouldn’t be the case.
There are firefighters, first responders, and civilians who are still falling ill to this day due to the dust and rubble from those towers collapsing. There are still people who wake up on 9/11 every year who have to reminisce on lost brothers, sisters, parents, husbands and wives. An estimate of around 10,000 people either died or suffered injuries on 9/11 which means families of that many people still live with that grief every year, no matter how many years later.
I believe strongly that every year on 9/11 we should observe a moment of silence, the morning “Words of Wisdom” gives an overview of the attacks, and there should be some kind of Freshman assembly to make sure that no one forgets about what happened on that dark day.