"Just a Thought" column continues in La Prensa SA, 2-24

Just a Thought: Remembrances of 9-11
Steve Walker

I remember it as if it were yesterday, although it occurred nearly 12 years ago in 2001. That series of coordinated suicide attacks upon the World Trade Center in New York and in Washington D. C. shocked the world. For many older Americans who lived through the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 that started World War II, it was like a flashback.

President Franklin Roosevelt referenced the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 as a “Day that will live in Infamy!” That day in 2001 will also live in infamy to the younger generation.

.I was a Special Education teacher in a 7^th Grade English class at Kingsborough Middle School in Harlandale ISD with the mainstream teacher presenting the lesson at the time.

I was sitting in the back of the class monitoring the special needs students and looking up some test material on the computer when I noticed on the computer screen the photos of the two towers after they were hit by the planes.

Before I could say a word, another teacher opened the door and rushed in and informed the class that it was reported that there was a tragic accident in New York. Initially we were not aware it was a terrorist attack.

Throughout the day reports filtered in as everyone reacted in shock and dismay. One of my fellow teachers was visibly shaking because she informed us during our conference period that her dad was scheduled to visit the Pentagon that day as part of his work.

By the end of the day she learned that her father had gone to the Pentagon and the area he was to visit was the area that took a direct hit from an incoming plane hijacked by the terrorists.

By the grace of God, my fellow teacher’s father had miraculously left the area less than five minutes earlier to meet someone for coffee. He was OK!

Army Lt. Colonel Karen Wagner, a Judson ISD graduate whose office was in that same area did not survive. Wagner High School is named after her.

Another faculty member’s aunt was at the World Trade Center when a huge slab of concrete fell from the side of the building and landed some feet away from where she was standing. The impact was so great that the back blast threw her nearly one hundred feet away, dislocating her shoulder and breaking her arm. She was unconscious for 24 hours but woke up wondering what had happened to her.

My own younger brother, Kelly, I learned the next day, was scheduled for one of those flights from Boston but inexplicitly cancelled at the last moment and rebooked another flight for later that day. He too is alive to tell the tale by the grace of God! The terrorist attack that day still affects us, and our lived ones, be it a friend, family member or humanity in general.

We must never forget and honor those who lost their lives. We salute those who perished and those who survived to tell their story.

As always, what I write is “Just a Thought.”

Steve Walker is a Vietnam Veteran, former Journalist and Justice of the Peace. His former La Prensa column, “Ask the Judge,” ran for two years.