Remmick-Hubert Special Page - Lodi Union High School, Class of 1960-Newsletter
Vol. 7: 2 Feb: Last Page
Question #4
How did the events of 9.11.2001 change your life?
#4: 9/11 has effective me very much. As you may know, I own an Aviation Insurance Agency. The rates have been going through the overhead. Underwriting has been tightened to the extreme, and immediately following 9/11, underwriters cancelled all War Coverage's with every policy. Then the offered to replace war coverage for about 10 times the prior rate. I had clients that were grounded and could not make a living for 30 days or more. Their business has since fallen off and they are rebuilding their clientele.
I did know of one person who was killed in the world trade tower. I have many business contact that work in the area of the WTC who had close calls. They said it was like a movie .
It has changed the way I view people. I want to know more about people now. I ask more questions now.
On a recent trip to New York in October, My wife and I were very concerned. I had my Money clip confiscated because it has a one inch fingernail file. . We had two Oriental's sitting in our assigned seats. They did move but proceeded to talk in their native tongue and use their Cell Phone. I decided that if they made any crazy move, I was going to the overhead, grab a bag , hold it in front of myself and rush them. We arrived OK but what a hassle to fly.
I prefer the government us profiling. We know what the hijacker look like. We know from where they come. We know they buy one way tickets. We know they sometimes do not have any baggage. And we know they have help from those who service the aircraft.
I am still having a hard time accepting the fact that the finger nail file I traveled with for over 30 years was now illegal. It is not the weapon, it is the person. Why not handcuff me to the chair if you do not trust me. That is the message the Government has taken. We had better start trusting each other. May the flight crew needs to talk with the passenger before they get onto the aircraft and get a feel and trust of each other. If the captain does not feel comfortable with the passenger, and /or the passenger do not feel comfortable with the pilots and crew, they should be allowed to change there travel plans with no penalty.
I admire the AA Captain who denied access to the secret service who copped an attitude when trying to carry his fire arms on board. I guess 9/11 has effected me. It has effected all of us.
I did have a law officer mention that he though we should give everyone boarding an aircraft a 45. Even the crew.
Now who wants to start something?
Feel free to edit this one.
Got to go to work. Take care. Now you have to get Governor Gray Davis out of office. He is Clinton Light.
Regards
Question four (Events of September 11th-how did it change our lives?): It made me and my family more aware of how fragile life is and how precious it is. With the repercussions of Sept 11th I worry about what it has done to our economy, our freedoms, jobs cutbacks, more company (and big ones) laying off people and bankrupcys. I see what it has done to our stocks and 401ks,etc. I see a lot of changes that have come to pass and anticipate there being more and bigger fallouts coming. Its seems America has caught up to some of the rest of the worlds terror activities and problems that we have not had to experience here before.
I pray and try to stay optimistic and concerned for my family and grandkids growing up in this world. What ever happened to the simple, safe and fun days of when we were kids in grammar school and in high school. It seems so long ago as we get older!
Robert L. Rocque
FrenchyRock@aol.com
Regarding 9-11-01, I was in the classroom at the time, teaching 5th grade and I felt violated and vulnerable from the moment I heard all the news before school. I just wanted to go home and huddle by the television and cry with everyone else. But you have to be stoic and push some of your own feelings aside and be more clinical, so in my classroom we watched T.V. until about 10:30 while I tried to give students some useful vocabulary for coming news reports, such as Osama bin Laden, evacuation, critical, terrorist, etc. I also felt I had to allay fears, as some of my students were very anxious about what they were hearing and had heard. I told them to watch the news carefully and try very hard to understand it in the coming months, because it was a historical moment and they would always remember where they were when it happened. I emphasized that they were living through an historic event and should let their parents help explain it.
How this horror has changed my life is that I feel more suspicious in general and more patriotic, of course. I am fearful for the future of my children and their children, though I probably won't be around to see the grief that they may some day encounter. Unfortunately, I can confess to being much more in favor of tightening our borders and immigration requirements than ever before. I have now begun to feel that this great nation is being eroded away from us little by little by little and we need to wake up and smell the coffee and preserve the American culture that started with our forefathers, and get those old values back. "America, Love it or Leave it!" is my anthem. I remember someone I had for History in high school saying the next world war would come out of the Middle East. Well?
question 4: Sept 11 changed my life as I was on a military base and it closed down immediately and we were under VERY tight security. The school was closed for the next four days, even though teachers had to show up for work. We had NEO inspections to make certain that all of our papers were in order in case of an evacuation. We still are under tight security, but at least we are now more free to come and go. However, daily we are reminded that we are targets here and to be extremely careful and aware of our surroundings. I have taken four airplane trips since the event and I'm much more suspicious of people who are boarding the plane with me.
When we [my husband and I] woke up on the morning of 9.11.01 , the radio announcer was exclaiming that a plane had struck the World Trade Center Building in New York, I reached for the television and turned on the power____ and we (with the world) watched the second airplane plowing into the World Trade Center. I sat in the safety of my bed and , yet, I was so so full of horror because it seemed the USA [we] were about to enter WW III. I had no thoughts of this being an accident. I knew we were at war. I assumed it was a country like Iran who had begun this tragedy upon the world. I hoped it wasn't some of our Americans who have acquired so much hatred toward their own government and who wanted to bring attention to their cause. No one in the news world or our government were sure with whom we were at war. It was a few minutes into the events which were happening and I turned to Garry and said, "Remember when I told you that a large airplane flew over our house and trees going way too low and turning toward San Francisco which I had never seen before..." It was about that moment that it was announced that there were several other planes not accounted by the airlines ... Not long after this the news people announced our Pentagon building was struck by another plane. "They are going after our famous landmarks," stated my husband. Course living so close to San Francisco, we thought about the Golden Gate, the Bank of America building [near where our older son works].... and the TransAmerican building [near where my husband has his office]...."Are you going to work today?" I asked my husband. "Of course," he stated and got ready for work. There was talk by the news people who, also, realized various other cities with well known buildings might be targeted next... Then we saw on the television people running and the WTC, tower one, coming crashing down.... then, tower two ....
Many times since I have thought of the fireman whom had been shown earlier who was going toward the towers and his words, which may be his last words, were to the camera while his family was probably in his home watching. He said something like "It's my duty to save as many people in there as I can." He hesitated and then something like, "I know my fellow firemen will try to come in and try to save us if we get into trouble. This is what we were trained to do. So, I have to go..." He finished putting on his gear and ran off toward the WTC towers...
Later that morning, as I sat in my studio working on my web sites on my Mac, I had the television on to watch for new developments.
It was so interesting to see the events unfold before us in a different fashion because the news held no usual ear marks of our "liberal press"...
In fact, what we all were watching on the television screen was like watching a movie, and I couldn't help but wonder how many young children realized this wasn't a movie but something very real and what they were seeing were real people running for their lives, real people who had died in the two towers and all the heroes were real...
About this time, we were hearing people revealing the facts that people in the WTC had used their cell phones to say, "Goodbye" to their loved ones and then we heard some of the passengers on the plane that crashed had learned through their own cell phones that the hijackers were using their airplanes as flying bombs....
Did the events of 9.11.01 change my life? Yes. I felt the weight of this event upon my heart and mind.
My thoughts are continually on the children who lost their mother or their father (or both), grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin and/ or friend.... And, I can't help think about these children growing up with anger and hatred in their hearts toward the "evil terrorists"....
I worry about effects all of this has upon all our children who watched the television news broadcasts and seeing over and over the second plane striking ad plowing through the second tower of the WTC and watching all those people running away from the huge wave of dust, ash and darkness...
When my granddaughter who is nine asked, "Why did those people want to kill all those people in New York?" I was ready. I explained about "evil doers" [words so commonly used by Pres. Bush and the news people].
I remember in the "60s" with the "flower children" and all the "anti-war" demonstrators who cluttered the campus of the University of California [Berkeley]. They thought it their right to dance on the flag laying in the mud with their fingers making the "peace sign". A few set fire to the flag and I remember all the War veterans were angry at the destruction of the US flag for which they had fought and so many of their fellow soldiers had died under in the Great War [WW I], WW II, Korea and at that time in Vietnam.... I couldn't help wonder why so many young people in my generation didn't understand the importance of our flag, our symbol, for which our United States of America stood for them as well as myself and family. Did they not realize how many people have died to protect their rights to "free speech" felt the flag was a sacred symbol to our older generations as well as our boys who were fighting in Vietman against the communists who at that time wanted to rule the world and didn't believe in their rights to "free speech" or even any other of our rights as individuals? Some did while others just didn't give a dam and followed like sheep who were too high on too much consumption of "weeds".
Out of the ashes of our slain has risen our blood stained American eagle with flags flying high...
I sincerely hope under our flag we can accomplish a time of peace in which people realize the importance of "liberty and justice for all".
Judy A. Remmick-Hubert sailing Sea Bear on San Francisco Bay
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Newsletter -Vol. 7: 2 Feb 2002 
