Today -- and I hope you'll forgive my digression -- I am going to veer away from my usual subject and use my column as a way to figure out what, if anything, those of us who live so far away from the sites of these tragedies can do. I know that many of us feel helpless because New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. are quite simply thousands of miles away. I feel helpless because all I can do is watch everything unfolding as our government releases more information, little by little. I feel helpless every time I see the footage of the twin towers first rammed by two jet planes, then one by one imploding on themselves, knowing full well that an unthinkable number of people lost their lives before our eyes.
Helpless -- and I am driven to do something. Here are some things I am doing to help in my own small way:
Talking to My Son -- He came home from school yesterday, having been told that a terrible tragedy was caused by "bad people," but he didn't fully understand the issue (not that any of us do!). Thankfully, his elementary school handled the situation quite well by not showing the news shows in the classrooms (older students in the school districts were permitted to watch the news throughout the day) and telling the kids not to watch unless their parents watched with them. I did my best to help him understand what happened, defining unfamiliar terms like "terrorist" and "hijack" to a little boy who had never heard these words before but who would surely hear them spoken numerous times in the near future.
Keeping to Our Routine -- I normally watch an hour of cartoons with my son, after his homework is done (and I commend children's networks like Nickelodeon, PBS and The Cartoon Network for remembering who their young audience is, and for keeping the sense of continuity for their young audiences by sticking to their regular programming schedules). Yesterday was no different for us, even though it was very hard for me to tear away from the news. I think it's important to protect our children and to reassure them that they are safe by keeping their schedule as normal as possible.
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