Shared by Catherine S. in Alabama...thanks, Cat

(Sudiegirl's note: Cat is a professor at Troy State University and a former classmate of mine in Washington, Iowa. She's a very articulate person, as you'll see below. Thank you for sharing your experience, Catherine!)

As for September 11th, I was in Flagstaff, Arizona, which at this time of year is on Pacific Coast time. I was a grad student working on my PhD, and I was getting ready to go teach freshman composition.

I turned on the TV to have some background noise while I got ready. Instead of the Today Show, I saw Tom Brokaw reading some report about a plane flying into a New York City building.

My first reaction was that this was a satirical farce, some kind of news programming that NBC was doing in honor of some anniversary of something. I thought it was like the Mars attack radio story in which American began to panic because they thought the story they were listening to on the radio was real, when in fact it was just a radio program for entertainment. I watched for quite some time, maybe 10 minutes, thinking that what I was seeing wasn't real. I fully expected Brokaw to come to a conclusion about the role of media in the US or something like that.

Finally, I heard enough of the broadcast to realize that the story was true. I also saw the jet fly into the second tower as it was happening. I saw the towers collapse. I immediately sent an email out to all of the English Department grad students and faculty telling them what had happened on the east coast, because I knew our students might react to this, and therefore teachers would need to be aware. I was thinking I would probably be the 5th or 6th person to make the announcement, but I wasn't.

I was the only one.

As people read my email, they were shocked.

I arrived on campus to find that students everywhere were on their cell phones. Family and friends had called during their morning classes, and they were desperately trying to locate loved ones who were in the towers. I couldn't believe how many Arizona students had loved ones in the towers or in that neighborhood. I guess it makes sense, since most people in Arizona are transplants or snow birds from other states. My students reacted very strongly, and could not concentrate at all. I tried to make sure that no one was suicidal or too traumatized to function, I tried to debrief and give them some ways of coping with the trauma, and I reminded them of the university's counselling services. We stayed the full class time, while students talked and made cell calls. I monitored students on campus throughout the day for signs of PTS.

It never occurred to me that White Arizonans would begin acts of violence against other races. We don't have an Arab population. But we do have people with brown skin. American Indians, Latinos, and East Indians began to be victims of racial violence. They were shot, beaten up, robbed, raped, and set on fire and burned alive. My White students, Christians in particular, immediately wanted to send nuclear warheads to Iraq and kill Iraqi people to teach them "a lesson." The American Indians and Latinos called for peace, mercy, civility, and humane treatment.

Once again, American Whites and Christians have proven that they are largely social fascists and cultural/political imperialists. Historically, American Whites and Christians indulged in racial and religious self-importance and arrogance. Historically and today, they endorse silent holocausts and racial extermination within the US, along the US-Mexico border, and around the world. By so doing, they move the US into isolation and away from Canada and European first-world countries, whose societies have evolved from imperialism/colonialism and to civility/humanitarianism.