Sometimes, History is Sadness

History is full of beautiful and wonderful things. You can probably think of many, like your first birthday and the day you got your latest favorite thing. People in your family probably remember great days like the day men walked on the moon or the day the Berlin Wall came down. Everyone you know has favorite days, days that they remember happily.

September 11, 2001 was different. On September 11, a great many people died.

You probably already know the details. The big picture is that the World Trade Center, one of the most famous symbols of New York and of the United States, was destroyed. One airplane hit each of the two towers of the World Trade Center. Not long after those crashes, both towers collapsed.The Pentagon, the center of the U.S. Defense Department, was also hit by an airplane, and many people died there, too.

Farther away, another airplane that had been hijacked crashed in Pennsylvania. Everyone aboard was killed.

In total, 2,996 people died and more than 6,000 others were injured.

This is very sad. It’s horrible. It’s terrifying. It makes us all wonder what’s next.

Many people (children and adults) looked up in fear whenever they heard a noise. Was it another airplane? Was it coming for them?

This terrible tragedy affected everyone in different ways. Some people knew someone who was there. Many had family members who were visiting New York or Washington who couldn’t get home. The sadness extended far beyond the city of New York or Washington, D.C.

Sometimes, history is sad. History is full of terrible things, like long wars and terrible natural disasters. History is full of people dying and people being injured. It’s a part of life, just as much a part of life as happiness and great things.

Older people you know can probably remember the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger or the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Those were terrible, horrible things, and people were terribly afraid for many days after each of those things happened. Now, many years later, we can look back on them and learn from them. Security in the space shuttle program, in nuclear power plants, and around the U.S. president is greater today.

When all is said and done, September 11 was certainly one of the most terrible tragedies in history. But as people listened to the news and talked to their friends and family about this terrible day, it became easier to remember that time can help ease the pain that people feel. People recover, and heal, and the grief of the survivors lessens.

Sometimes, only time lessens pain and grief.