There Ya Go
They say time heals all wounds. Maybe not all though, if you ask me. It’s been months since we celebrated 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July, which indeed, took on a whole new meaning this year.
But this is September, and this month takes on a different meaning, too; it has for 25 years now.
This edition of the Tracy Area Headlight Herald is filled with what I call “good time photos” from last weekend’s Box Car Days celebration. These fun images can be found on nearly every page of this special edition. And while I hope you enjoy all those photo-filled pages, there’s one page in particular that needs some extra attention.
That would be the very back page of the B Section, where you will find a fullpage commemoration of 9/11. There shouldn’t be a newspaper in this country that doesn’t have a page like that. Yes, we could’ve filled it with more Box Car Days photos, or sold some color ads to pad our bottom line, but that just feels, well, kind of un-American.
Besides, we can’t forget.
That is why there is a Page One story featuring Tracy Police Chief Jason Lichty and Fire Chief Dale Johnson III. I sat down with them last week to talk about their recollection of Sept. 11, 2001. Who better to talk to than those who protect and serve our community?
And that’s why I’m writing about 9/11 here. We can’t forget.
I often wonder if today’s young students are taught about 9/11 like I was about Pearl Harbor when I was a kid. Of course, there are no textbooks anymore, but finding information and images from 9/11 on the internet is hardly a challenge. I did take solace when I found that there have been books about 9/11 written for children as young as kindergarten-age.
Still, are today’s students writing reports on 9/11? Do teachers include it as part of their lesson plan?
I sure hope they do, because … we can’t forget.
I haven’t. I will probably never forget that morning. Like millions of others, I turned on my TV that morning as I was getting ready for work. I remember thinking, “This is happening in my
country?” I had planned on heading to work at the Independent later than usual because of a late night the day before. However, I got a call from my boss, Dana Yost, who simply said, “You better get in here.”
While we at the Independent were thousands of miles away from what was going on out east, we’re still reporters and news-gatherers. We’re still documentarians, if only on a local level. And as we all know what happened on 9/11 affected us all in some way.
I got to the paper and we quickly decided that we would put a special section together — a combination of Associated Press stories and photos and a local perspective. In the business, we call them “man-on-the-street” stories, and believe me, people had a lot to say.
Last week, Dana emailed me, asking if I still had that section. I told him I do, but that I would have to dig it out of some box somewhere in my house. So that’s what I did, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t moved as I paged through the section.
And that’s why we did what we did — to make sure we never forget.
