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Retired North Daviess history teacher Linda Sarver has written a poignant note which has been included in 9/11: The World Speaks, a tribute book from the World Trade Center Visitor’s Center.
Linda has been a teacher for 22 years, 13 of them at North Daviess. Her husband Keith taught at the same school for 20 years. The Sarvers visited New York last November and went to the memorial and museum honoring the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. Visitors were asked to fill out a postcard in response to the question: Why is it important to remember 9/11?
Linda wrote the following: "I am a history teacher. Last year my students said what’s the big deal about 9/11? In only nine years, memory is fading. Not on my watch! We must learn from 9/11 so the world can avoid its repetition."
The editors asked permission to include her comments in the tribute book. There have been over 200,000 postcards written in 48 languages from visitors to the Center from over 120 countries. Of those, only 175 were chosen for the book.
Inside the 243 page book, each postcard equals one page and is presented in the author’s own handwriting. The comments written in a foreign language are translated into English.
"I can’t believe they picked mine," said Linda. "The notes and illustrations and photographs are from all over the world. One of the most heartbreaking is a letter from a little boy whose dad was killed in the towers."
During their visit, the Sarvers were impressed with the museum which has a replica of the World Trade Center, including the five lesser known buildings also destroyed by the attack.
The names of the nearly 3,000 individuals who were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, and the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing are inscribed on a wall inside the museum.
"It was a very touching place," said Linda. "There was a bench so you could sit there and read the names — pretty much read and weep."
They were also moved by the paper-folded cranes sent by Japan’s children in honor of world peace. The colorful cranes hang by ribbons everywhere in the museum.
Linda was teaching history at North Daviess when the 9/11 attack happened.
"We had the TV on the whole day," she said. "We couldn’t take our eyes off of it. We were watching when the second plane hit the tower. It was a day that will never, and should never, go away. It changed America forever."
Through the years since then her students have often asked what was the big deal about that day. Linda would take the opportunity to talk to them about the victims and the rescuers at the World Trade Center. She would explain why American soldiers are fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I did a lot of explaining about how this war was different than any other war America has ever fought," she said. "In this war, our soldiers can’t recognize the enemy because they don’t wear a uniform. This war is different, also, because it is a war of ideology instead of nationalism."
As the years have passed after 9/11, so has the emotional impact.
"It’s not a matter of reminding the students about 9/11," she said. "You plain have to start over and teach them about 9/11."
Linda said conveying the horror of the day can be an uphill battle as today’s children are constantly exposed to violence in the TV, movies and Internet. She adds that she thinks some media outlets are biased and paint a very bleak and negative picture of the gulf wars and events surrounding them.
"I think the media wants us to forget what happened," she said. "But we mustn’t forget. If we do, the events of 9/11 become superfluous and our soldiers will have died in vain."
It will not be long before the children who can remember the events of that day as something individual and personal will graduate from high school. America’s children will learn about that tragic day only through the history books.
When the students are helped to know and understand the meaning and magnitude of Sept. 11, 2001, Linda said they do get it.
"It’s an honor to be a history teacher and a sacred trust," she said. "It’s our responsibility to make sure children hear and understand the truth."