A Missing Memorial

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

Today marks the fourteenth anniversary of a tragic day in our nation's history, the attacks of 9/11/2001.

Fourteen years ago, planes crashed into the Twin Towers, forever changing the skyline of New York City. Fourteen years ago, the Pentagon was attacked. Fourteen years ago, heroic passengers aboard a flight fought back against a terrorist and deterred the plane from crashing into its intended target. Fourteen years ago, the world changed forever.

Back in New York, 9/11 was a day to show your pride in America. I never knew what happened in other states; quite frankly, it never even crossed my mind to think about what happened anywhere else. Each year, all regularly scheduled programming would be cancelled for the entire morning, and the only thing showing on all major networks would be the 9/11 memorial in which the names of all of the victims were read. My mom, being a stay-at-home mom, was able to watch the services every year. Whenever 9/11 fell on a weekend, or when I didn't have a class in college, I would make it a point to sit and watch the memorial as well. It felt like such a great way to honor all of the victims.

My family was very fortunate to not lose anyone on 9/11. My dad was working in the city that day, and I remember how scary it was when my mom couldn't get in touch with him. I was only in third grade, and while my dad had gotten one of those huge cell phones that had started coming out, he had forgotten it at home that day. He had to try to call my mom from payphones to let us know that he was alright.

In my hometown, five heroes were lost on 9/11, and I remember that I knew one of their daughters from softball or something. Our five local heroes were fire fighters, a Battalion Chief, and a Lieutenant. We have a memorial set up in the middle of town, dedicated to those five men and to all of the others who lost their lives that fateful day.

This was the first time that we observed 9/11 somewhere other than New York. Quite frankly, I was horrified. Down here, the first moment of silence was broadcast when President Obama and our First Lady stepped out and stood in silence with the country. After that, there was nothing. There was no memorial service being broadcast. There was no reading of the victims' names. Nothing.

I had to find a live streaming of the memorial service online. It was so sad that it was not being broadcast on the television. It made me wonder if this happens all over, if the only place that the memorial is being broadcast is in New York. So I decided to make a petition. I decided to use this website, called change.org, to make a petition to try to bring about some change before next year. 9/11 was a national tragedy; it didn't just change the lives of people in New York, but of people all over the country.

If you would like to sign my petition to try to bring about change with me, you can click on this link to read the petition and add your name. I'm petitioning to have all regularly scheduled programming suspended on the morning of 9/11 so that the memorial service can be broadcast all over the country. I hope you'll stand with me and try to bring about this change.

God Bless America!

Thank you so much for your continued support! I look forward to sharing more stories about my experience with foster care, and hopefully hearing from readers who have questions or similar stories to share. I'm always willing to answer questions and hear about other experiences! Please don't forget to like and share my Facebook author page as well!

I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.

Thanks!
Taylor

Previous Post

Next Post