September 11th: A National Tragedy

Just recently we remembered one of our nations biggest tragedies on September 11th. Though I was only in 4th grade, I can still remember hearing the horrifying news. A little after 9 o'clock on that day, I was sitting in math class and everything was normal. Right at the start of the lesson my best friend Sean was early dismissed and we all thought he was lucky. A few minutes after Sean left another kid was called for early dismissal. Throughout the rest of the day, peoples names were called and everyone hoped that they'd be next. By lunch, the vast majority of the school was gone and it was time for the teachers to explain what was going on. So our guidance counselor decided to enlighten us. She got on the microphone during lunch and told us that the dentist would be making a lot of money that day.  Nobody bought it, but that was as good as it was going to get. Right after lunch was finished our principal came on the PA and told us that some people had made some bad decisions and that we'd be going home early. Everyone celebrated, especially me, early dismissal! Who could ask for anything more? We all went to the busses and some people were curious about what happened, but most of us were just excited that we were going home early. Before I even got back to my house, I had set up a big kick ball game on my block. I ran inside to get a couple of oreos and my dad asked me if I knew what had happened. I said no, and attempted to continue out the door. He stopped me and then told me what had happened and showed me the news. He then waited for a response from me, but only got a shrug and then I continued out the door to play. Im sad to say, but when I was in 4th grade, things that didn't affect me or my family did not bother me that much. I even wonder that if I had been as old as I am now, if there would have been a similar reaction. Im not sure how I'd react, hopefully more appropriately than my 4th grade self. I actually think that this is a problem in America, sometimes people are not affected that much by someone else's tragedy. Im not saying everyone is like this, but do we not have a reputation for not responding fast enough or well enough to other nations tragedies? Such as genocides and natural disasters.