Hollister
– Downtown streets were adorned with American flags, but the
mood was anything but jovial Monday as locals observed the
five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11,
2001.
Hollister – Downtown streets were adorned with American flags, but the mood was anything but jovial Monday as locals observed the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“It’s just a real sad thing,” Hollister Mayor Robert Scattini said. “The world took a beating five years ago, that’s for sure.”
No formal memorials took place in the county, and locals for the most part went about their daily lives, but small reminders on the television or in storefront windows were all but inescapable.
Local educators were tasked with the unenviable job of helping students process the significance of the event; many had only vague memories of what happened and to some the events were a lifetime away.
“Even though it’s a solemn day, we try to put the emphasis on having a patriotic day at the elementary school level,” Ladd Lane Principal Maxine Stewart-Carlson said. “In our newsletter we asked that everybody come to school in red, white and blue today.”
Fifth-grade teacher John Kiesewetter, who went to school donning a red, white and blue tie and American flag pin, said it was important to work even a small lesson about Sept. 11 into his students’ school day.
“Some of them remember it and others know that their parents have been talking about it. One of my students said, ‘Gee, Mr. Kiesewetter, that’s a pretty far way away,'” he said. “But I’m from New Jersey and one of my cousin’s cousins was a casualty of those attacks. And it really brings it home when you realize how close to you these events were.”
Kiesewetter also used the occasion to reinforce patriotism and the question of what it means to be an American with his students.
“The thing about history is that you can always look back to see how things were and what mistakes we might have made,” he said. “And we can use that to look to the future.”
Older students also took time to reflect upon occasion. Rancho San Justo asked students to participate in a minute of silence early in the morning in honor of those who were lost five years ago, and the Rancho Maze Band performed the National Anthem.
“The band room is like a big garage, almost, and they opened up the door so that the whole school could hear if they opened up their classrooms,” Principal Don Knapp said. “Everybody took some time to listen and it was just their own special way of remembering.”
However they chose to honor the tragedy’s victims, Monday was a somber time for many locals.
“I just hope everyone keeps those families in their minds and prayers,” Scattini said.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
ds****@fr***********.com
.
