911

It is one of those times when you do recall what you were doing and where you were.

We were on vacation in Williamsburg VA, and making ready to head out for the day. I decided to turn on CNN see what was happening in the world, as I had not seen the news in a few days.

One tower was burning and the reporter was talking. I was stunned, I assumed it was a fire in the building; I had no idea what was happening. Then the second tower exploded, just like that. I did not notice the plane. I saw it simply explode and assumed something from the first tower caused it somehow still unwilling to believe anything else.

Then when they showed the plan in slow motion hitting it, it was immediately clear what had happened. There was no doubt what was taking place, and it was simply a matter of time before we knew all the details.

Reporters were going nuts they were making up events all over that weren’t happening though You didn’t know anymore what was happening as they were reporting all things and tried to tie them all together.

We stayed home and watched the television transfixed and prayed to God for it to end. We packed as well as we could not continue the vacation from that point on. We had to get home.

The drive home was eerie as all planes were grounded. You could feel it. You could sense there weren’t any planes in the sky and it was unnerving. Knowing the skies were silent and not a single plane was up there.

We saw the signs directing you to different routs as you approached NYC. We opted to head out around the city through PA and up to western NY then back across NY to Albany. There were temporary signs put up telling you about the closed roads. It was eerie. The highway had a silentness about it, At gas stations people were quiet TV’s on and radios on and everyone listening intently not saying anything to one another.

My boy was less than a year old, and even he sensed something, as he was unusually silent and well behaved on the drive home.

We listened to the radio all the way home trying separate fact from fiction as the reports kept coming in. by the time we got to Albany it was pretty clear that there were four planes in all. They dispelled a rumor about some explosions at some federal buildings.

The feeling was surreal, it was hard to comprehend, and hard to accept what happened. It was time to face the reality of it.

At work we lost communications with all our NYC locations. We lost an office. It was devastating to know people we knew through electronic communications only were no longer there. Then reality set in. We lost people. People who we did not know but were part of the team just the same.

You worked on autopilot only. You were numb. We had to restore communications to the other locations as quickly as possible, and we had to assess the damage. You had to focus on the data loss, and the replacement of the outage and try hard to ignore the loss of the personnel.

Let that sink in later right now get systems back on-line and replace the data from backup servers. Get the systems back as close as possible to original capacity. Then and only then let it sink in. We tried to stay on autopilot as long as possible so as to avoid the inevitable.

That was getting people down there to assess the damage. Who to send, everyone was a volunteer. Everyone wanted to do something anything. We built the servers by hand and the volunteers drove them down to the new remote location and got them on-line. We had to use DSL for now as all T1’s were down. Even that was hard to get.

Now to face the human side. Meetings to talk about what happened and where do we go from there. It was hard, a list of names. Names we had seen in emails and memo’s but now names of unknown status. It was hard. No one wanted to do it; no one wanted to face it. Collections for the families, give what you can.

That we can do, we can reach in and give from our excess. We can pass the hat and make some contribution to the families. No time to think about it just do it, give like you never gave before and maybe it will put a salve on it. Maybe it wont hurt as much.

I was not going to write about 911, as so many stories are already out there. But it hard to keep it in. After five years it is still raw and still alive. Memorial services are all over. There aren’t words even after five years that fill the gap or give console.

We do what people always do, we move on. We forge ahead and we keep going. We don’t have a choice after all. We pray to God that he has a plan and that plan we may one day know. We pray for those who are lost, and we pray for those who remain.

Education Wonks.

Love the name, and it is a great site for staying in touch with Education concerns.

One of my main issues is Education and staying informed about where it is going and what’s going ion there. My Public school experience was less than stellar and I met some very miserable teachers during my very impressionable years.

Let me qualify this with stating that we moved, and moved often. Some 38 times to be exact, and in all those moves it meant readjusting to a new School maybe for several years, maybe for a few months.

Always being the new kid meant not connecting with the teachers, and certainly not connecting with the local kids. It meant always being the outsider and not being able to associate with any particular group of students.

During those years, I cannot say any teacher of recollection even tried to make a connection. Not one of them stands out as anything special, and to this day I do not recall any of the teachers names. That is the basis for my wanting to stay in touch with the public Schools and doing what it takes to try to make it better.

My son does not attend public School. This due to both my Christian belief and my belief that public Schools are in crisis.

Reading over at Education Wonks they have a take on that. Well, granted each public School operates differently. However one of our local High Schools holds a separate prom for Gays. yup, in addition to the prom most students attend there is a second prom specifically for the gay population. that is one reason to keep my son away from them.

There is a constant battle with public Schools about misinformation, such as can students turn in religious assignments and can students pray in school. It is a daily battle across the country. So, I can understand there is misinformation about what actually happens in public Schools as well. Always two sides of a coin.

However, having been a Youth pastor in the past, I can attest to certain School administrators and teachers who deliberately went out their way to make life miserable for students they targets as Christians. I have seen it first hand and went to several High Schools to try to dispel inaccurate information as well hold 'Meet you at the flagpole" prayer vigils.

At first we were asked to leave the School grounds but after handing them the rules regarding proper authority to do so, they did to their credit back off. However afterwards several students were targeted thought he school denies any such targeting. One student was told he could not read his bible on the school grounds under any circumstances, clearly the teacher was wrong.

That same student was also told he could not pray before his meal in the cafeteria again clearly wrong. The list went on until I went tot eh School and informed the Principle that this student felt he was being persecuted and left literature for the Principle to read and pas along.

OK, granted this student was in your face type, and may have brought some of this on himself, but he was simply demonstrating his rights. He was trying to deliberately call out the teachers who were known to be anti-Christian and show them for what they were. So he is not without some fault here. maybe fault is not correct, he didn’t do anything outside the rules.

This student was very industrious as well. he found a copy of the Board of Education Rules, big thick book each Board has, and he learned a few things and he didn’t hesitate to point them out. But, he did this only after he felt he was being unfairly persecuted. In other words he felt they drew first blood so he reacted in kind.

One major issue was the faculty lounge. One day he walked in sat down and started reading a magazine. well you may imagine the faculties reaction. They told him to leave he was not allowed in there. it was for faculty only. So out he whips a copy of a guideline specifically stating in clear English that, a school cannot have a meeting place separate form the student body for any purposes. That faculty lounge was in violation of the school boards own guidelines.

The list goes on the battle was long, he won a few lost a few rounds. But the issue here is teaching teachers what can and can be done. There is misinformation on both sides. It's about respect and knowing the facts. Something many folks tend to forget. We take someone word at face value without learning the truth behind it. Much like the Internet.

As good as the Internet is, it is also filled with misinformation. You have to dig around a bit to get the facts and the truth.

However, back to my experience with schools. One teacher tried to punch me in the head because he was so frustrated with my school work. he made a hole in the wall he punched it do hard, had I not moved my head he would have punched my face, that was fifth grade. He had other students place any papers they handed me on the floor, step on them, spit on them, them hand them to me.

That was because one day on a wet winter day, my books dropped on the bus floor and the papers got all wet and muddy as students stepped on them on the bus instead of helping pick them up. So he thought it would be nice I got all my papers that way. Nice teacher there eh.

Sixth grade was no better, I was placed in a broom closet each day during class instead of attending class for weeks on end each time I either failed to hand in an assignment or did not get a passing grade on a test. yup, broom closet during class. Very nice.

It only got worse as I moved up the grades, and move up I did. Even though after fifth grade I had pretty much given up on school, failed to turn in any homework, and basically checked out during class, I was moved up from one grade level to the next anyway. It did not matter how poor my grades were I always was moved up.

Seventh and eighth grade it was rare I turned in an assignment, and rare I passed a test in class. Eighth grade end of term final, I wrote an essay that had absolutely nothing to do with he subject matter, nothing to do with the work, it was randomly written essay about nothing, basically gibberish and received a passing grade and moved on to the ninth grade!

So, what I learned was this. It did not matter what I did or did not do in class. It did not matter how well or how poorly I did class. All I had to do was show up, and in 11th grade I experimented with that as well. I missed more than half of the school year. More than half! Yet I passed. I did not turn in my final assignments and rarely made it to school. Yet I passed and received a diploma. Explain another time why I graduated after 11^th and not 12^th.

Today I regret much of it, and have gone on to complete college, and in college I realized how much I missed. I struggle with the English language, rather grammar, punctuation and so forth. I can not form a sentence let alone a paragraph. This is due to both my changing schools constantly as well as the failing of the school system.

They did not care enough to realize I should have been held back or given after schoolwork, something. My grades were appalling. And it was consistent. Yet it was not recognized.

Perhaps today it is different. However it is not something I will risk with my son’s education. He attends a Christian school. He loves it and is happy each day. He is blessed in that he does not struggle with schoolwork it comes easy to him. He completes his assignments quickly accurately and easily. He clearly didn’t get that from me!

My point here is this. Public schools can be a place of isolation and even worse a place of persecution. No, they are not all that way. Some are better than others. A dear friend of mine is a teacher at a local High School. She is a great woman and she tries hard to stay up to speed with her education as well as she shows sincere concern for her students.

She stays after school for those who need her to. She goes out of her way to reach out to her students and offer them extra help as needed or simply listen to them. She cannot however ever talk to them about Christ. She cannot how ever much she desires to tell them about God and his grace. That is the sad part right there.

Even if the student talks to her about God, she cannot tell them how devoted she is and how they can become a better Christian no matter what the student says. She would lose her job if she did. At least she fears she would lose her job. And her fear is not losing her salary, it is that she could no longer teach. She is devoted to teaching and what it brings.

So, it is not all bad. However it is bad enough that our public school system needs improvement. Many parents are moving to home school or private schools. Why, various reasons. But clearly it means they are discouraged or have lost faith in the public school.

The solution is simple. We need to work harder to fix the broken system. We need to instead of abandoning the public system take it back. Even if taking it back means breaking it more first. I believe it needs to be torn down then rebuilt.

Once some time ago, I was a Drill Sergeant. We had to tear down the kids and then build them back up as men. We sent them home as men having received most of them as boys.

Our public schools need the same treatment. We need to get them tore down and then rebuilt, and rebuild them back on the values they were built originally. And to do that we need to pull our kids out thus depleting them of the talent and money. When they fall miserably, then we can start the repair process.

Disassociated observations

Lately I have found myself observing young couples or couple wannabee’s. Not sure why, maybe t4rying to recapture some that exuberance that, fluttery feeling in the stomach or whatever.

Some observations. If you are married and have an infant, it is not prudent or prosperous to flirt with the new single girl in the office while talking bad about your marriage!

If you are a boy trying to get solicit a girls attentions, smacking the soda bottle out of hand so it splashes her and everything around her, may not be the best approach.

The other day I stopped at a local Senior center that was having a book sale. I did pick up a box full intending to only get one. However, I noticed while there folks using their cell phones to look up the ISBN number, I have no idea who they were patching in to. I assume they were collectors somehow looking up the value of the books? No idea here, just guessing.

Was asked to fill a logistics position with a Church, ordering supplies for Sunday School. Not my Church but I know them well. Learned what a difference there can be between Churches about priorities and fundage, and am impressed with both.

Fall is arriving soon, meaning lots of tourists apple picking and cider. Mmm, love the smell of Fall, but it means the long cold winter as well.

A friend spent the night, we don’t see her and her husband so much anymore, miss them a lot, and will make a better effort to get them back in the fold. She is full of life and a pleasure to be around, and I miss that fire she carries.

Found my printed Bible I didn’t know I was missing! Use a PDA with eSword installed so rarely use the hard copy, but it was like finding an old friend. Sadly I use those cards you pick up at funerals as placeholders. Looking them over I am seeing more old friends there than I have in this world now. Too too many, and I know they are with our Lord but I still miss them.

Some suddenly gone, while others had a long goodbye. Some so young it hurts to think about it, and others were ready to go see their Lord and savior. Some I still cannot look at the card without tears, and others with a smile knowing they knew what living was.

Took a day off this week to spend with my boy. We sailed all day, and he slept going home. It was the best day I can remember in a long long time, and today I took him to lunch and all he talked about was his day of sailing and fishing.

He had a minor incident sailing though. It was carelessness on his part and mine. I let him wander the docks looking at the large carp fish, but it was getting dark. He is a good swimmer and wears a life vest.

A couple came off their boat and stopped to talk with him, I was at least 30 feet down the dock unloading the boat. He stepped around the couple to show them the carp, and he walked off the dock, right into the lake. I did not know my legs could move so fast, but they had him fished out before I could get there.

His words crushed me. As he subsided from screaming hysterically, he said I could have bee n there to get him out! A five year old cannot understand the building of trust and confidence. I was leveled and knelt to pray to God that I will be there when he needs me, both my son and God above. His words devastated me. He is learning his dad is fallible after all, and I am learning he will not be mine forever.

This week has been full of reflections, growth, old memories and new ones. I feel alive this week, pleasure to be serving our Lord.