The Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

I know nearly a month has gone by, but I want to be sure to mention that the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks did not go unrecognized here in the Slapinions household.

Discouraged by the lack of *any* apparent teaching about 9/11 in their school we took care to explain, albeit in age appropriate terms, what happened on that horrible day. On the anniversary itself Lisa and I sat down with Lulu and YaYa and watched the DVD of "9/11", the Naudet brothers eyewitness footage taken while embedded with a fire engine company that morning.



It is a powerful film, almost suffocatingly so, and we first watched it on the 6 month anniversary of the attacks. Although we had the girls exit the room for some (brutal) parts, we felt it was important they be sucked into the moment and know the fear, shock and horror that washed over every American that day. As a bonus, the structure of the film - it was conceived as an effort to follow a single probationary fire fighter during his rookie year - sucked the girls in. By the end they were frantic with concern for 'Tony', and thus were all the more immersed in the emotions of that day.

I am also proud to say that a column I wrote ran in the Pulitzer Prize winning Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel the morning of the anniversary, my first Sunday appearance and an emotional one for me, given the subject matter.

Early on the anniversary, while I was at work, Lisa's Mom took LuLu to a Brownie field trip to a local Air Force reserve base. While Lulu looks like a typical fun-loving eight year old in some of the pictures, rest assured there was some solemnity to the visit.


































To the victims of that horrible day - We Remember, and we will Never Forget.