Not that it's their fault...

I have a very vivid memory about today, let's see. I was eleven years old, and could probably be expected to fully grasp the ramifications of what had happened-what was happening-in America as well as any little girl my age could. I remember going to school like usual but something was strange about the way the staff and teachers were acting. They were stiff. I don't think they knew what to say to the students. After about an hour, before the first classes were over, there was an announcement on the P.A system telling the junior high students to go to the library. When we were all settled, my still somber homeroom teacher told us that we would be allowed to go home if we were upset about what was happening. I assume the majority of us had no idea what he was talking about, until he wordlessly put CNN on the television typically used for the elementary and kindergarten children. It's probably obvious that doing it that way may not of been such a good idea. But in a country that doesn't realize how vulnerable we all are, at any time, how else would the people in charge of guiding children be expected to react? I don't know, sometimes it seems practically fashionable to be in hysterics over "police states" and privacy issues but I don't think very many natural born Canadians truly understand what those things are. The children of refugees and Aboriginal parents that had to go through residential schools may have a better understanding of how easily personal freedoms are lost but it's not quite the same. Of course I might not know what I'm talking about, being half asleep and naive. In Edmonton, the bomb hoaxes in Churchill Square and hysteria over the oil sands being a target that followed soon after. Who was mentally prepared for that, or knew how to explain to the kids about those things. I thank my mother for doing her best.