Speaking up for Silence

This Sept 11 marked the 17^th anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. In 2001, four planes were hijacked and two of the planes were flown into the Twin Towers in New York. A third plane was flown straight into The Pentagon in Virginia, and the last plane was headed toward The White House or The Capitol, but was unsuccessful. The hijackers from that plane were overtaken by a couple of passengers and crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all on board.

It took approximately 51 minutes to change our nation as a whole, with 2,996 deaths and 6,000 sustained injuries, a vast majority being from The World Trade Center.

At school this year on the morning of 9/11, there was not a single announcement or even a mention of this tragic event to remind us and to pay our respect in school. It was not until I got to my period four history class and I had to mention three things that symbolized 9/11 to me that I thought, “Why on earth would we be talking about such a sensitive topic today?”

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I was honestly hit with discouragement that except for this class, not a single person mentioned it throughout the whole day as if it just had not happened.

— Talita Smith

At that moment I had a voice in my head nudging me to check the date. I was in total shock when I realized it was Sept 11. I was truly bothered and disappointed.

As many of you know, September 11^th is a day in which everyone shares a moment of grief and respect for the victims. I have taken a moment of silence in school every single year for 10 years. As a 16-year-old who grew up hearing about this tragedy continuously, I knew this was a respectful ritual in The United States Of America.

Through the past years it has come to my attention that more and more people are beginning to forget this ritual. Throughout the years less people talk about it and the history of this event gets thinner. It should not because this tragic event impacted our country as a whole and we must not succumb to society’s lack of public grieving.

Now this is not going to be a history lesson in which I blame the majority of our country for forgetting this tragedy and dodging articles, comments and even social media posts based on it. I initially was not going to write an article about this topic because honestly I felt as if there were too many opinions out there and mine wouldn’t make a drastic difference to the society. But as I laid in bed on the night of 9/11 and thought of anything and everything during my restless hours, I could not help but think of this tragedy, the victims and the torn families. I questioned why 9/11 was not talked about much in school. Most of my classes avoided this major event as if it were not important.

I strongly believe that most people avoid mentioning a tragedy in hopes of not grieving. But an attack that changed our nation as a whole should not be forgotten. The continuous void in the hearts of those who lost a loved one in this tragedy should not get pushed aside or forgotten.

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