My Day ~ September 11, 2001

Along with being a mom, I’m a librarian at a large middle school in Boise. It was supposed to be a regular day. I got up, woke our daughter, Janette, and read a few pages of scripture . . . took a shower, got ready for work and put some leftover taco soup into a container for my lunch. My husband, Dan, drove us to school and work . . . family prayer in the car on the way. At school, my assistant, Diane, asked if I had heard about the airplane crashes into the World Trade Center. I hadn’t. Soon, our students and staff were receiving regular updates on the gruesome details.

We did our best to keep the students calm. We proceeded with the computerized reading level testing as scheduled in the library and administered the test to about 240 students. We also checked out 264 books to students during the course of the day.

Early in the afternoon, a full lockdown of all students and staff was announced over the intercom due to a suspicious situation that had developed near our school. We quickly herded thirty kids into our lockdown area, turned out the lights, locked the doors and waited for what seemed an interminable amount of time. Actually, the lockdown only lasted for ten or fifteen minutes, but standing in the dark with so many frightened students isn’t what I call fun.

I was beginning to wonder if the day would ever end. It seemed a steady inhale and exhale of trauma.

At last, the final bell rang, and we went through our routine of closing the library. At home, we glued ourselves to the television, like other Americans. Janette went to work, brought home hoagies for supper and went back to school for band practice.

While she was gone, Dan and I reflected on our once-in-a-lifetime trip to New York City last April for the American Mothers Convention, where we admired the World Trade Center from the top of the Empire State Building. Now, they’re gone, along with an undetermined number of innocent people.

The day is finally over, and so is taking our national borders for granted.

I wonder. What will be the cost in blood for Americans to maintain . . . "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all?"