September 11th was a dark day for the United States of America. I was sitting in my seventh grade history class. My middle school principal, Mr. H, poked his head in the room and said, “We’ve been attacked.” Before I could say anything, he was gone. I didn’t know what happened until I got home and my family talked about it.
The next day I was in my home room when Principle H activated the intercom system.
“Attention students, this morning we will be walking to the funeral home to attend a ceremony for those who died during the attack yesterday. Get your coats.”
I stood from my desk and walked to the door. I didn’t understand much about the attack then. I didn’t know the situation, or how many lives were lost that day.
I quickly opened my locker, put my coat on, and was the first to walk out the middle school doors with the rest of the students and staff several feet behind me. Most of the students took their time socializing among other things. I was task oriented, as I interpreted the announcement was “Get your coat, then get to the funeral home”. Everything was black and white to me. Striding briskly, I walked down Mason Street heading toward Downtown Charlevoix which was the direction of the funeral home from the middle school at that time.
As the lawn came into view, I saw a small group of people there already along with two uniformed military personnel raising the flag to the top of the flagpole, then lowering it to half-mast. Behind me I heard the chatter of the other students. I took my place on the lawn around the flagpole.
Even though I didn’t understand it all, I knew how ceremonies like this worked. You bowed your head and stayed silent unless you were given permission to talk. That was the way I understood it. That was the way I was taught. I have been to a couple funerals before that day. My parents told me to be quiet at such ceremonies. Knowing this, I stood silent as others gathered around the flagpole.
Part way through the ceremony, we were asked for a moment of silence. As the moment started, I heard two people jabbering and being disrespectful, desecrating this moment of silence. I turned toward the direction of the conversation. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The two who were talking were two I usually had to tolerate. My anger built up inside, I wanted to do something, but I couldn’t. If I did do something, it would have been more disrespectful than what they were doing now. The rest of the ceremony was uneventful. When the ceremony was over, it was back to the middle school. I slipped my way through the crowd of people as they were disbanding. I eventually got to the front of the crowd heading to the middle school and picked up to my usual brisk stride.