Posted on: Sunday, September 8, 2002
Memories of 9/11
• Humor often rises from ashes of catastrophe
• TV plans full day of Sept. 11 coverage
• Book chronicles Hawai'i reaction to 9/11
By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Drawing by Rachel Gamayo |
| Fourth-graders at Sacred Hearts Academy emphasized themes of patriotism and prayer in their drawings a year after the tragedy. The Twin Towers figure prominently in their memories. |
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| Drawing by Rachel Gamayo |
Gayle Shigemoto doesn't want to see images of planes crashing into the World Trade Center on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. She would just as soon turn off her television.
Shigemoto, 45, a Mililani woman who works for an insurance company, used to talk to colleagues at her company's offices in New York at the World Trade Center. Some of those voices on the other end of the phone belonged to people who died in the collapse of the twin towers.
Shigemoto is bracing herself for a barrage of fiery images of the towers crumbling.
"It's like reliving it," she said.
For her, that hits too close to home.
For many people living in Hawai'i, what happened in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field when hijacked planes struck still seems far away. But even here, people can expect the anniversary to stir emotions.
It will be normal for people to feel sad, angry, frustrated and a little less secure in the world, Hawai'i clinical psychologist Martin Johnson said.
"It's important to recognize that people will cope with it differently," he said. "For people who are dealing with other grief issues, it may be a good way to cope is to turn off the set for a week."
Even people who didn't feel emotionally overwhelmed a year ago might now understand the anxieties that other people were talking about last year, he said.
The Mental Heath Association in Hawai'i advises people to come up with a strategy to deal with the anniversary, whether it be limiting television viewing, giving blood, volunteering, exercising or just talking to people.
Don't try to neatly package the lessons of Sept. 11, said the Rev. Halbert Weidner of Holy Trinity, a Roman Catholic Church in East Honolulu. As he told Maryknoll High students at a religion class, "Life has changed."
"I don't know if you can make sense out of it," Weidner said. "You have to live through it."
Barbara Kuana, a 22-year-old University of Hawai'i childhood education major, doesn't mind looking back. She sees it as needed reflection.
"I'm hoping the anniversary is more of a celebration that we've come this far," she said. "Now it's how can we live after Sept. 11? What good can we take from it? I think it will remind us to continue to pray."
Fourth-graders at Sacred Hearts Academy emphasized themes of patriotism and prayer in their drawings a year after the tragedy. The Twin Towers figure prominently in their memories.
The newly released book, "Hawai'i Remembers September 11," (Hagoth Publishing Co., $9.95 paperback, $24.95 hardback), includes poems written by elementary students at Connections Charter School in Hilo.
They include works written last September, such as this one by fifth-grader Ipolei Boyd:
Planes crashing into buildings
A year later, there's no reason to think Hawai'i children will be traumatized by the events of Sept. 11, said Thom Curtis, a sociologist and family therapist whose students at UH-Hilo did interviews for the book.
When it comes to children, "the most important thing for parents to think about is to be willing to listen if their kids want to talk about it," Johnson said.
Parents need to discuss it in an age-appropriate way without going overboard and without brushing it off, he said.
"The most important thing is to listen to them and to reassure them."
In the midst of a media frenzy commemorating the year since the terrorist attacks, many Americans are ready to move on with their lives. Others are wondering how much TV images are affecting them.
In a recently released survey of 2,273 Americans conducted last fall by North Carolina's Research Triangle Institute found a correlation between hours of TV watched after Sept. 11 and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Distress levels were higher the more TV viewed, though it's unclear if that's what caused the distress, the authors said.
No matter how painful it is to watch, destructive images represent reality that we shouldn't forget, said Michele Konishi, 37, a UH graduate student from Hawai'i Kai whose brother lost two friends in the attacks.
Konishi, who used to work near the Pentagon, will use the anniversary as a day of reflection.
"I think it totally changed each American," she said. "It will be sad to see again. I think a year later, it's more like what have we learned about the incident and ourselves? I hope it brought people together."
Advertiser staff writer Mary Kaye Ritz contributed to this report. Reach Tanya Bricking at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.
Smoke and fire everywhere
Explosions here and there
People dying
Sadness spreading
Ashes flowing
FBI everywhere
Hijackers committing suicide
Lots of damage to buildings
and everyone.
