Tuesday morning September 11, 2001 I put my sons Frank and Brandon on the school bus. I remember looking up at the sky thinking what a perfectly gorgeous weather day it was. The large fluffy white clouds made the shade of the blue sky even more deep and brilliant. Arriving at the office, traditional Tim Horton’s coffee in hand I expected a typical morning. Chatting cheerfully with colleagues in the conference room our boss, Barbara sat down ready to start our weekly sales meeting. An administrative assistant came in and said, “Something really bizarre just happened, a plane just flew into one of the twin towers.” Everyone looked puzzled and our boss unsettled, but said, “Okay, well we need to get started, just keep us posted.” A few minutes later the phone rang, she answered it, then excused herself. People started checking their phones and Barbara returned to the conference room shaken, “We’re being attacked, I have family in NYC, no one knows exactly what’s happening, I have to focus on them, you’re all free to go home.” We all sat shocked? “Go home? We’re being attacked?” What in the world was happening? We all scattered. My first instinct was to drive to my son’s school, take them home to our safe sanctuary. My second was to stay calm, go home, watch CNN and find out for sure. I did the second. Turning on the television I sat in my well-lit living room, horrified. The expressions on the News Casters faces were tortured and pensive, their voices deep, strained and sad. The footage they streamed was almost indescribable. People running, covered in thick dark soot and blood. Some scenes were worse. My stomach was churning, I was pacing. Like millions of other people I wanted answers right away and then I just wanted it over. Everything to go back to normal. Of course it wouldn’t, I continued to watch and pace. The next few days as the smoke cleared and debris settled the world could see more clearly the complete devastation of the terrorist attacks. except now we were hearing about more and more heroes. The undeniable courage, bravery, and compassion not just police, fire and rescue workers but just regular people. There seemed no humanly way to wrap your head around what was happening. The terror, tragedy, fear, anger, helplessness. Emotions of every kind were running high. People from around the world felt it. People’s opinions were intense and some very vocal. Not just people that were being interviewed on television, but our family, friends and neighbors. Many people turned to their faith for comfort. Churches were packed, rosaries repeated, candles lit. For me it truly made me question religion and in general how people have treated one another not just because of religion but other reasons as well. The interesting thing was, that no one was questioning the obvious. It didn’t matter what religion, race, nationality, man or woman, no one or nothing appeared from any of those plane crashes. God, Buddha, Mohamad, no one symbol emerged from the ashes and claimed that “they were the one conclusive God.” So then wasn’t that proof that from that day forward everyone should just treat people like people. That no one “group,” was better than anyone else. That prejudice, hate, discrimination should just disappear? September 11th changed the world forever. People still refer to 9/11. How we can “never let it happen again.” But I wonder if we could have said, 9/11 happened and we can never let hate, prejudice discrimination and arrogance happen again?
Essays need to be separated into paragraphs. One long paragraph is not good. What were the instructions for your essay?
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Essays need to be separated into paragraphs. One long paragraph is not good.
What were the instructions for your essay?