WATERBORO — It wasn’t until she was up on stage, recounting the events of Sept. 11, 2001 to her peers, that Shawna Alexander fully realized the enormity of the event.
Alexander, company commander of Massabesic High School’s Naval Junior ROTC program, served as the master of ceremonies for the school’s 9/11 assembly Friday afternoon, during which the entire student body took time out of the school day to commemorate America’s experience with the terrorist attacks. The ceremony featured musical performances and a speech from a former New York City police officer, Drew Palmer, who was on the scene that fateful day. Punctuating the speaker and performances was a historical account read by Alexander.
“It is fitting we observe a moment of silence as a tribute to those lives cut short, but these solemn ceremonies will always be more than a remembrance of the past, they will be a tribute to both the living and the dead,” she read to the students.
Initially, said Alexander, “I didn’t understand the significance of the script because I just can’t comprehend why someone would do something like that ”¦,” but after hearing Palmer speak and watching the slideshow of Sept. 11 images, the significance of the attacks took hold, she said, and “I just wanted to cry.”
Like Alexander, who is a senior at Massabesic, the rest of the student body is too young to remember what it was like to live in America at the time of the attacks. It hit home for her, however, when her father was deployed overseas in 2002 for a year.
“(Sept. 11) means a lot because I understand the sacrifices that were made for the people who went in there,” she said.
The MHS assembly was Palmer’s first time speaking publicly to a group about the attacks, and he decided while he was speaking to focus on a message of tolerance. He stressed to students that “Islam is not a violent religion,” and urged them to visit the site, and to one day bring their own children.
“Show them what was done,” he said. “It was hatred, pure hatred, for our way of life.”
Palmer, who said he worked for the NYPD for 22 years, was at a union meeting when the attacks occurred.
“By 9 o’ clock, the world had turned upside down for me,” he said. “Things people shouldn’t have to see in their lifetime, I’ve seen it.
“I just did my job, those guys who went in there are the heroes,” he said.
Palmer described the World Trade Center site as “16 acres of pure living hell,” and told students how five pairs of boots melted off his feet from the hot steel he walked over during the rescue effort. He recalled listening to screams for help, hearing firefighters’ radios and police officers’ guns going off ”“ and being unable to find them amongst the wreckage.
“When they put up that Freedom Tower, remember that right there,” he told students, gesturing to an image in the slideshow that showed a collage of those who died in the attacks.
The concert band played the national anthem, while the ROTC color guard joined the York County Sheriff’s Department color guard in displaying the flag. Several members of the Waterboro Fire Department came to the ceremony and were recognized as well, with students shaking their hands before leaving for the day. The assembly was rounded out by a performance of “God Bless America” from the Massabesic chamber choir and a performance by student Brian Wardwell of “Where were you when the world stopped turning?” a country song written by Alan Jackson about the Sept. 11 attacks.
“It’s definitely something that should be remembered not only because of the horror but because of the way Americans reacted,” said Wardwell. “I was 7 years old when it happened,” he said, adding that his song was meant mainly for the adults at the assembly who would never forget where they were on that day.
Even though the high school students don’t recall the attacks personally, Alexander said she believes they “have a sense of understanding.”
“I’m proud and happy that we showed our gratitude to a man who was there (Palmer) and to the people in our community who served.”
— Kristen Schulze Muszynski can be contacted at 282-1535 Ext. 322 or kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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