America Attacked: 9/11

Letters From a Broken Apple, an illustrated story about New York on September 11, helps all of us remember our own thoughts and responses to the tragic events of that day:

• At the beginning of such a tragedy, no one really knows what to write.



• Maybe we start with the sirens.



• Or maybe we start with the rescuers.



• The only planes in the air are military - the F16s.



• What has happened? It is beyond belief.



• Friends and family frantically call each other: "Are you okay?"



• Two friends have not checked in. Are they okay?



• America shakes in her "collective skin."



• Heroes steer people clear of collapsing walls and throat-clogging ash.



• In fact, heroes are the first thing we notice.

What Americans take from the tragedy, among other things, is this: "We the People" will be "okay" because the people stand together. Because terrorists will never destroy America's national spirit.  And because ... as President Obama noted years later in his speech entitled "A New Beginning" ... America will reach out, to find common ground with the Muslim world, even as she will also "relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security."