ATTACHMENT

COMMENTS BY ANNE B. HOOPER

September 11, 2002

I woke up this morning to the sounds of sirens outside our window. A medivac helicopter soon hovered over our pasture, and traffic was backed up. Some students had flipped over in a car and ambulances and police were swarming. Meanwhile, on the television we watched the beginnings of a day of remembrance.

I called my mother-in-law in Walkersville, where half her neighbors have monitors and would hear of the accident, to let her know we were all right. It hit me that this is what people were doing exactly a year ago, except they weren’t all right. The Alan Lintons were not all right. And the tragedy began, and this day of remembrance had an added note of sadness.

We have learned a lot over this past year. We have learned that Americans are made of far stronger stuff than some gave us credit for. We have learned that so-called ordinary people can do extraordinary things, and risk and give lives for strangers. We have learned that heinous crimes can be committed by people full of hate that is difficult to comprehend, and we have learned that others can give and comfort and love in equal measure.

We have also learned that it is imperative to reach out and connect with the rest of the world, because we are truly one. A starving child in Somalia is no less than a starving child in Appalachia. A little girl forbidden to learn to read in Afghanistan is no less than a little girl struggling with learning disabilities in Frederick County.

Within our own public schools, I have only the greatest admiration for all those principals and teachers and administrators and janitors and food service staff and bus drivers and parents who pulled together on September 11 and made the day as safe and comprehensible as possible for our students while facing uncertainty themselves about what was going on in our world, and not knowing whether or not their own loved ones were secure. They did a great job.

I am also proud that we have continued to reinforce in our classrooms throughout the year what we have been teaching all along—the value of freedom, of democracy, of education, of tolerance, respect, and peace.

It’s been an extraordinary year, and I just want to thank all of you in this community, living in the shadow of Ft. Detrick and Washington, for working together to heal and understand and build on the positive from those events a year ago.