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On the afternoon of 9/11 I drove home from downtown Chicago, without a plane in the sky, and arrived to hug the family. Claire, my fifth grader, had been sent home early, with an assignment to plead parents to write a note of encouragement to be read when class resumed a few days later. I tripped across my letter to Claire today.

September 12, 2001

Dear Claire,

In 1978, I spent a year traveling overseas with Grandpa Ralph and Grandma Connie, because Grandpa was working in Rome. I remember then, as a young teenager, seeing the soldiers with machine guns in the airport when we arrived. Later, when we went to Israel, there were armed guards everywhere. They were there to prevent terrorism, Grandpa told me, although I didn’t understand. When I have traveled to Europe or South America on business, I have seen the same scene, although I never thought much about it. Even this past Spring, when Mommy and I took you to the Netherlands, there were soldiers in the airport and train stations, but I didn’t tell you why they were there, because I felt there was no need to explain what terrorism meant.

Yesterday terrorism was visited upon our country. Four planes, bound for Los Angeles and San Francisco, were hi-jacked. They crashed into the two towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and onto a field in Pennsylvania. It must make you feel a little helpless as you try to understand how something like this can happen. I feel a little helpless as I wonder how to explain it to you and your brothers. Yesterday we saw that there are a few people that do not believe that life is important, and they communicate their ideas through violence. This is wrong. Grandma and Grandpa remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Some of your teachers may remember the same about when John F. Kennedy was shot, as I do when the space shuttle exploded above the Atlantic Ocean. You will remember the horrible day yesterday, because these are events that, while terrible, good people use as a reminder to always try to make life a little better.

You will hear a lot of things about these events over the next weeks and months, maybe from friends, TV, and other places. Some of what you hear will be accurate; some will not. Remember to ask Mommy and Daddy about what has happened, and what is happening. We will explain the best that we can.

We feel a little helpless, certainly. However there are many things that we can do to help. I’ve thought of a few, and here is what I suggest:

• Continue to pray for those who died, and for those who love them. God will help.

• Don’t be afraid. Our government is powerful, and is already figuring out who did this.

• If your school thinks it’s a good idea, find a school in Manhattan, and develop “E-mail” friends with a 5^th grade class there. Let them know you are feeling like they are.

A few weeks ago Daddy was on a business trip, and I woke up in my hotel room one morning. I was drinking coffee, looking out of the window, and I was worried about whether I had done a good job negotiating a contract the day before. Then, as the sun came up and lit up the sky, I thought that not everybody gets to wake up high in the World Trade Center hotel and look at the Statue of Liberty. I didn’t know that in a few weeks no one would ever be able to say that again.   I’m thinking about the people I saw there for the few days I was there, working in the lobby, and the restaurant, or the other businessmen who came in to work there every day, and I wonder if they are safe.

The World Trade Center is now gone. More importantly, many people died yesterday, and this makes us very sad. Our great country is still here, though. Those few people who attempted to scare us, and who are jealous of our freedom, will not force us to change the values that have made this the greatest nation on earth. The Statue of Liberty continues to stand tall and proud.

Say your prayers tonight.

Love, Daddy

This entry was posted on June 5, 2014 at 7:02 pm and is filed under Family, Travel with tags 9/11, claire mcinerny. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.