Published: August 30, 2006 10:57 am            

Sharing helps the healing process

It was a Tuesday, I remember that. It was school board election day in Iowa and, as managing editor of the Independence Bulletin-Journal, I was pretty focused on not screwing that up, since I’d only been on the job three months.

It was also the first Tuesday our advertising manager was out of the office since I’d started. At a small paper that publishes on Wednesday and Saturday, Tuesday is by far the busiest day of the week. The most important morning task for us was to get the fax from Oelwein that told us what ads were in the paper, then draw boxes for those ads on dummy sheets representing each page. Without that information, I couldn’t begin to lay out the paper.

On this particular Tuesday, I was so focused on placing the ads properly — instructed by phone — I barely paid attention when our reporter called and said she was staying home for a while to watch the “Today” show. Something about an airplane hitting the World Trade Center.

As a compulsive fact-checker, I headed to the Internet for news, but every site I tried to connect to was down. There was no TV in our office (until later that morning) and it was good old-fashioned radio that brought me my first real accounts of the horror that was unfolding across America.

Later that morning, when the monthly weather siren test began, it took me several moments to calm myself and rationalize the process. And as I worked all day long, well into the night, I remember thinking how much I wished I was still in college, surrounded by friends and professors who would just want to sit and talk about what happened.

I couldn’t stop working because the paper had to get done. And when the time came to drive it to Oelwein, I was happy the 22-gallon tank on my 1988 Chevrolet Caprice Classic had enough gas since people were lined up down the block at most of the stations in town. And when I finally got back to Cedar Rapids and in the same room as Kristie, then my fiancee, I don’t remember anything at all, but I know I must have been overjoyed to finally see the most important person in my life.

But that’s just my story, and it’s just a small part. What I’d really like is to share your stories. And not just me, but the people who are planning the Sept. 11 memorial service at the Freedom Trees site on Mill Creek Parkway. The ceremony will be steeped in emotion thanks to featured speaker Lt. Col. David Gool, a Clinton High School graduate who was in the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., that fateful day. Also planned are a bell ceremony led by Clinton Fire Chief Mark Regenwether, with comments made by Clinton Police Chief Brian Guy and Clinton Mayor LaMetta Wynn.

Some of us may think we have moved on with our lives, that the events of these attacks did not change how we go about our day-to-day business. That may be true to some degree. Maybe now, almost five years later, we can see police and fire vehicles race down the street and not instantly think of the emergency responders who lost their lives simply by doing their jobs. But believe me, it won’t take but a few solemn moments for all of the Sept. 11 emotions to roar back into the public consciousness.

Which is exactly how it should be. That’s why we have events like this, to give credence to the notion that the events of that day will never be forgotten. It’s why Pearl Harbor and the D-day invasion still command attention on their anniversaries in December and June.

Other events at the Clinton memorial service will include a bagpipe performance by Deputy Chief Gene Wilkerson of the Burlington Police Department, a Color Guard and a processional of area mayors, firemen, policemen, National Guard and AMVETS members and emergency medical technicians. “Taps” will be played and there will be a 21-gun salute.

Citizens also will be invited to talk about their feelings and recollections. And that’s where you come in. Sometime between now and next Wednesday, send me an e-mail or a brief letter and share your stories of Sept. 11, 2001. The memorial committee is looking for a few people with notable tales to tell, people with personal connections to the attacks or vivid memories of where they were when they heard the horrible news.

I and some of the committee members will look over the submissions and select a few people to speak. No one from the committee put it this way to me, but I believe sharing personal experiences of friends and neighbors will help drive home the fact that Sept. 11 was a human tragedy, not just something that happened in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Its impact was, is and should be felt across the country and beyond. It spans geographical and political boundaries and hopefully touches us all, speaking volumes about the world we live in and the way we get along with each other.

So drop me a line. You don’t need to tell your whole story if it’s too detailed, but please offer a glimpse of how Sept. 11 affected you and your life. Sharing like this is part of the healing process, and if the people I’ve talked to are any indication, we all still have some healing to do.

Scott T. Holland’s column appears every Wednesday in the Clinton Herald. His e-mail address is scottholland@clintonherald.com.

        

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