September 11- An Eleven-Year-Olds Perspective.



Posted: Wednesday, September 07, 2011

by Casey Starkweather

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was sitting on a couch, watching television before my mum went to work. I was homeschooled as a child, and I am grateful for that.  It was around 10 that morning, when the news broke in to show that one of the towers had been hit. Mum let us watch it, mostly because she wanted to watch it. At the age of eleven, I watched the first tower fall, and then the second.  When mum took us to pick up my father from work that evening, there were people selling newspapers on the street. We lived miles away from New York, in North Carolina.  I do not remember that day well, but I remember the days that followed.

At the ripe age of eleven, the one thing that I saw around me, on television, in the papers, everywhere, was not tragedy, but hate. Imagine asking your mum to explain why the towers fell and not having her able to answer. Imagine listening to a talk show and hearing people express hate but not toward those who crashed into the towers or those who  ordered them to do so, but toward a nation of innocence people, most of which had done nothing wrong. At eleven, I saw the world differently than most of those twice my age. I did not hate those who had torn apart the nation that I so dearly loved. Instead, I felt sorry for the families. Both the families of those who were killed and of those who had hijacked the plane.

At eleven, I pondered why someone would do that. Why someone would kill them self and thousands of innocents. I did not have an answer to that question. The adults around me spoke in whispers about 'their religion' and how 'their religion' ordered them to kill all Americans. It took me a while to realize just how wrong they were. But then, at the age of eleven, I knew it had little to do with religion. Sure, some of the extremists might have been a part of it, but every religion has its extremists. My eleven year old mind could not think of a word for why they would do what they did, for it was not how I usually associated that word. But I knew then that they were afraid, they had to be. I just did not call it fear. Fear can cause people to do things that they really don't believe in, especially if it protects someone else.

Most could not see two sides to this story, but at eleven I did. I was against the war, against the hatred and the anger. I still am.  September 11th changed my country. It did not tear the United States apart, it made us stronger. The weeks that followed were ones where race, religion, and gender were overlooked as everyone pulled together to search the rubble or send aid to those who needed it.  It was one of the first times I felt proud of my country.  I still do.  Ten years later, I am no longer looking at the world from a child's perspective, but that of an adult. And that adult still strongly agrees with that little eleven year old girl.
Casey is an 21 year old college student, majoring in History, Minoring in German. She plans to go to Law School, or if that fails, to get her Ph.D. She writes articles based on personal experience, in the hopes that someone will learn from her mistakes and with the hope that she can change someone elses life.

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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)
» left by Rebecca McKeown
 242 days 3 hours ago.
7 fans.
I was also eleven when the towers were hit. It was a powerful thing to experience at such an age--not quite old enough to understand, but not quite young enough to not be afraid. Great article, Casey.
» left by Marijo Phelps
 241 days 8 hours ago.
142 fans.
Two of you wrote from a perspective of an 11 year old! Enjoyed both pieces.
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