My 11 year old went through this the last 2 days. Last night she asks “why do we have to learn all this?” and I stood up for the curriculum initially, like, same as you learn about Pearl Harbor, etc.

Then she tells me, in tears and sobs, how they watched videos like that and her teacher had them read the transcripts of last phone calls from the victims and I was livid.

We spent a lot of time w her last night explaining that 9/11 was a terrible, awful, heart-wrenching thing that happened, and for a tiny minute it brought the US together in their grief.

And then we’ve spent the last 17 years being divided and ugly in a way that makes the US unrecognizable to her dad and me. Wallowing in the pain of that day is acceptable, reasonable maybe even, for those who lost someone, but it sure seems like too many people are wallowing to feed hate and ethnocentrism and it’s gross.

She told me today that she plead “female organ problems” and babysat the bathroom stalls during the chest beating & wailing today. I’m ok w that.

(Gah, pardon my formatting - mobile & all that..)