Dear Mr. Underwood, I enjoy reading your column and appreciate your invitation to send in comments about the extremists attack on September 11, 2001. We lived in rural western New Jersey at the time and our community lost many people in the World Trade Center. One of the Port Authority policemen who was killed lived in our community and was the father of four children. Two children at our daughter's high school lost parents who worked in the World Trade Center. On that day, my friend had just arrived at my house to go walking and I remember saying to her that it was Osama bin Laden-I had seen reporter John Miller interview bin Laden and knew that our continued military presence in Saudi Arabia was provocation to bin Laden.
In the months following the attack, we had to make decisions about travel into the city and out of the country. Our daughter was a member of the band at her high school and the band had been asked to march in the October 2001 Columbus Day parade in New York City. To ease my fear, my husband went along with the band and marched alongside with several other parents in the parade. The band also planned to travel to Italy during the following Easter break in 2002 and the deposit for the trip had to be paid in late September 2001. For several reasons, we decided that our daughter would not go on the trip-we were one of the few to make the choice not to go, much to her regret. The following spring, as the band prepared to leave for Italy, there was another terrorist threat and the trip was cancelled at the last minute and the folks who had paid a deposit lost their money.
After the attack, my Uncle William Campbell, who has served as chaplain for police and fire departments while serving in ministry came up to New Jersey from North Carolina with another chaplain friend and spent the night at our house before going into New York to serve as chaplains for a week.
There was a large Salvation Army summer camp near our house, and the camp was turned into a makeshift motel for rescue workers. A local teacher, Mary Beth Berry, organized kids at the high school to make sandwiches to take to the rescue workers.
Back to the Port Authority policeman--his children took piano from the same teacher as our daughter. Every December, the piano teacher held a Christmas recital at our church and all the students played sacred music as well as secular holiday songs. I remember weeping watching the children of the policeman play at the recital that following December, 2001.
After September 11, living in New Jersey was frightening to me as I felt unprotected and vulnerable. We had considered moving back to the south and as our children were finishing high school in 2002 and 2003, we began planning to move and chose to move to Winston-Salem, my parents hometown. We have really enjoyed living here for the past three years and feel at home!
I am trying to read more about world affairs and be more aware of the impact of US actions in the world. I am also trying to learn more about the religious faith of others to be able to understand the difference between the tenets of a faith and the extremist point of view.
Best wishes,
Julie Coulter