Keeping the memory alive
Santa Fe firefighters honor victims in lesson for generation that doesn’t remember attacks
The steady beat of boots echoed Tuesday across the Plaza as Santa Fe firefighters marched up and down two short sets of wooden steps — symbolically climbing the 110 floors of the World Trade Center towers — in honor of the 343 New York City firefighters killed Sept. 11, 2001.
Seventeen years after the terrorist attacks that altered life in America, firefighters remembered the first responders and more than 2,500 others who died in New York City, Arlington, Va., and in a field near Shanksville, Pa.
Terrorists hijacked airplanes and used them as missiles to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another attack thought to target Washington, D.C., was foiled by passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
While firefighters honored the 9/11 victims, they noted that a new generation of Americans doesn’t recall those moments the way their parents and grandparents do — if they remember them at all. That much time has passed. “People have to understand the sacrifice and hardship,” said fire department Capt. Jason Arwood. “It’s all of our responsibility. … If we don’t
make that effort, stories like this will fall apart.”
The memories must be shared, he said, to prevent history from repeating.
“It’s a hallmark event that mankind, regardless of how far from New York, needs to get,” Arwood said.
One 17-year-old in the crowd, Ryan Sanchez, said he grew up watching documentaries about 9/11 with his father and hearing stories about the attacks and the response.
“It’s weird to think that something like this could happen,” he said. “It shows Americans can care for other Americans even though you don’t see it every day.”
Jevon Montoya, another 17-year-old who attended the memorial, said he didn’t grasp the full scope of the day’s horrors until his sophomore year at St. Michael’s High School. “It’s kind of sad I didn’t know what went on,” he said.
It’s important for young people to know about 9/11, Montoya said. “It’s the truth that has to be told.”
Still, schools and parents alike have struggled to determine when and how to teach kids about the attacks. According to a 2017 report by National Public Radio, just 20 states included in-depth lessons about 9/11 in their high school social studies curriculum.
Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Veronica García said 9/11 is part of the high school curriculum in New Mexico.
Teachers at other levels chose different ways to discuss the event’s anniversary on Tuesday, she added.
“I imagine teachers gave their lessons in a way that is developmentally appropriate,” García said.
Some classes watched a documentary on the attacks, while others watched a CNN broadcast of the New York City memorial service and held discussions afterward.
At Capital High School, social studies teacher Meredith Tilp shared more than a lesson; she shared her experiences as a 9/11 survivor. She was working in Manhattan near the World Trade Center that year.
She always struggles with how to tell the story, Tilp said. “It was so painful and horrific.”
Each year, she asks students what they know about the attacks. As the years have passed, she said, their knowledge has become minimal.
“It’s getting to be a generation that feels the impact of it because of our laws, but doesn’t really,” she said.
Tilp lays out the facts to her students. Then she outlines the effects of 9/11, including the cost of wars after the attacks and changes in world view. She then shares an 11-minute documentary about 9/11 called Boatlift. She always cries. “It’s really healthy for them to see that,” Tilp said. “… Telling the story to kids who have no clue about that event but know trauma in their own lives … that tells them a lot.”
Whether or not their children’s schools address 9/11, Santa Fe fire Capt. Mario Ross said, it’s parents’ responsibility “to teach them the significance of the events.”
But Ross — who has a 4-year-old and two 2-year-olds — and other firefighters acknowledged they’re not sure how to talk to their own children about 9/11.
About a dozen 4-year-olds from First Presbyterian Church’s Early Childhood Education Program, wearing pink and black firefighter helmets, attended Tuesday’s memorial, waving to the local firefighters as they filed into the Plaza.
They weren’t told about 9/11, said teacher Evelyn Perea. Instead, the children were told the ceremony was in honor of the firefighters. “We don’t want to scare them,” Perea said.
While most of the firefighters at Tuesday’s memorial were far from the East Coast when the destruction unfolded, Jim Scheer spent months working on rescue and recovery teams at the twin towers site as a member of the New York City Fire Department.
Scheer retired from the New York agency and moved to Santa Fe 12 years ago.
“It’s still fresh,” he said of 9/11, with tears in his eyes. “I don’t remember how many funerals I went to.”
As new firefighters join the local department, Arwood said, they are taught firefighting history — including the response to 9/11 — and are required to attend the annual memorial. Talking with senior members of the department, such as Scheer, is an important way for them to fully understand what the job entails, Arwood added.
“They have to be told what happened and why you’re here,” Arwood said.