“This must be the worse day in American history,” Eddie said after we watched about 30 minutes of television coverage of the terrorist attacks.
“I think you’re probably right,” I conceded.
When he returned home from school, I asked him how much he knew about what happened.
“A plane crashed into the World Trade Tower,” he replied.
“Two planes,” I corrected. “One crashed into each tower.”
That news came as a big surprise to him. He also knew about the plane that hit the Pentagon but was unaware about the one that crashed in Pennsylvania.
was home from 3:00 until 4:30. The TV was on the entire time. I switched among CNN, Fox, NBC,CBS, and ABC to see if I could detect any differences among the networks’ coverage. Predictably, the news anchors at the determinedly conservative Fox network seemed the most eager to assign blame for this tragedy, but, surprisingly, none of their guests swallowed the bait. Earlier in the day, I had been tempted to tune into Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. I’m sure he was frothing at the mouth and pinning the entire series of events on Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton.
“This is really sad,” Eddie lamented as I was getting ready to return to work.
“You can watch something else if you want,” I suggested.
The Disney and cartoon channels were running their usual programming, purposefully oblivious to the day’s devastating events. I felt he needed a temporary break from reality. (Later in the week, most non-news cable channels ran occasional banners or showed a frozen screen expressing statements of sympathy.)
I walked to the other side of the house, as I felt the need to rub my face with a cluster of cotton balls dampened with a squirt of Sea Breeze. When I returned to the family room to announce my departure, I noticed that Eddie quickly changed the channel, as if he was watching a forbidden program. Like everyone else, I think he had quickly become addicted to the day’s news nonstop coverage of “America Under Attack”, as CNN has dubbed it.
Andy had called from Matt’s house around 4:15. Football practice, as well as all other after-school activities had been canceled for the day. (Actually, the boys’ football practices were held as scheduled, as the Suburban Youth Football League has no direct affiliation with the Middleton school district. Andy said only 7 members of his team showed up.)
“I’m doing my homework,” he offered. Then he made a comment about the terrorist attack. I thought I detected a catch in his voice.
“I’ll talk about it with Mom when she gets home,” he said.
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