9/11: Twenty Years Later
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Season 2: Episode 5 Description
In this special episode: It is the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001. 🤍 Learn about what happened that day and the lasting impacts of 9/11. 🇺🇸 Correspondent Pamela Kirkland speaks with author Alan Gratz about his book, "Ground Zero, A Novel of 9/11." 🎧 Listen in as Gratz talks about why he includes young narrators in the book and shares the challenges in putting the novel together. 📖 Hear about an exhibit at the 9/11 Memorial Museum for families in today's Trivia on the Ten. ❤️
Sources for the episode:
https://www.911memorial.org/learn/students-and-teachers/lesson-plans/lesson-plans/local-heroes
https://www.911memorial.org/visit/museum/exhibitions/k-9-courage
Links
📓 Learn more about author Alan Gratz and his work on his website. https://www.alangratz.com/
❤️ Check out the resources available for families and educators at the 9/11 Museum & Memorial website. https://www.911memorial.org/visit/museum
🐕🦺 See the photo exhibit of the K-9 First Responders. https://www.911memorial.org/visit/museum/exhibitions/k-9-courage
📧 Do you have something to tell us? Email us at: hello@thetennews.com
📝 Sign up for The Ten News-letter!
📸 Join us on Instagram
TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:03
Twenty years ago today, a series of coordinated attacks against the United States changed the country and the world forever. Smoke and fire taking place in both towers of the World Trade Center. In today's special episode, we'll discuss the lasting impacts of 9/11 and why it's important that we never forget. I'm Bethany Van Delft, it's September 11th and this is The Ten News.
Various Voices 0:27
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 0:34
If you ask a grown-up in the United States where they were on 9/11, in most cases, they will immediately know that you're asking about September 11, 2001. Our brain stores memories of important days and that was a really sad day for the United States, and the world. Correspondent Pamela Kirkland joins us today with Alan Gratz, author of Ground Zero, a novel about 9/11 for young readers to talk about the events of September 11, 2001, and its lasting impact on the world.
Pamela Kirkland 1:11
We all know the date. But, what happened on September 11th. And why did it change so much about this country? It started out like any other day until it wasn't. That morning, four planes were hijacked mid-air in a terrorist attack on the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. Initially, no one knew what was happening. Could it have been an accident? Was America under attack? This was before social media and even smartphones. People watched on TV and listened to the radio to learn what was happening. Then, the unthinkable happened. Both 110 story buildings known as the Twin Towers collapsed from the impact of the planes. The third plane was flown into the Pentagon, the head of the US Department of Defense just outside Washington DC. When passengers on the fourth plane heard what had happened that morning. They knew the same thing was about to happen to them. So they fought back against the hijackers. That plane, Flight 93 crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Where the plane was supposed to go is still a mystery. But it's thought it could have been headed to another target in Washington DC. The attacks killed almost 3,000 people. Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that had been operating in Afghanistan was responsible for the attack. Aiming for buildings that were symbols of what makes the United States the greatest country on Earth. A month later, the US launched airstrikes and the war in Afghanistan began. What happened immediately after? Well, there was a lot of fear, shock, confusion, how were they able to take control of the planes? Was there another attack coming? Were major US cities a target? It was such a shocking event, you have to understand that it changed everything, from how we fly to how Muslim Americans in this country were treated. We wanted to talk to someone who's written a lot about this, but more importantly, written about it in a way that helps us understand why it's important to remember that day, even though it was 20 years ago. Alan Gratz is the author of 17 books, including Refugee, Project 10-65, Ally, and Ground Zero. On this 20th anniversary of 9/11, we wanted to talk to him about his book Ground Zero, and how it connects what happened in the past to the present today. So first off, what made you want to write the book? For adults who remember that day, it's really not an easy thing to think about?
Alan Gratz 4:10
No, it's not and it's a topic that I had avoided for some time. I tried writing about 9/11 about 10 years ago in a different book and my editor and I both found that we weren't quite ready emotionally to deal with all the feelings we still had about that day, and it was 10 years after the event. And, so I put that story away. It was not the story that became Ground Zero that was a very different take on 9/11. But, still, it was my first time trying to write about that. But, I've written about other difficult topics in the meantime. I've written about refugee crises. I've written about other acts of terrorism, I've written about war. I've written about the Holocaust. And, in all that time, I did many, many school visits and I had students who were asking me again, and again and again, when are you going to write something about 9/11? Please write a book about 9/11. And I kept thinking, Oh my gosh, I don't know if I can do that. Because I'd already tried and it was so emotionally difficult. But then, I started to realize one of the reasons why so many young people were asking me and that is, of course, they were born after 9/11. My daughter is 19 years old. She's a sophomore in college, she was born in 2002. She was born the year after 9/11. So if you're in elementary school, or middle school, or even into high school, or into college, you were born after this event. And, and you may have read about it. And you may know something, a little bit about it, but you weren't alive for it, to experience it. And so I realized that I wanted to write a book that really brought that day to life, to hopefully, so that young people could understand what we adults are still dealing with, from living through it.
Pamela Kirkland 5:53
Give us a little summary of what Ground Zero is about and kind of what kids can expect.
Alan Gratz 5:58
Sure. So Ground Zero is the story of two different kids. The first is nine-year-old Brandon and he's gotten into trouble at school, he got into a fight defending a friend from a bully, and he's been suspended and because he lives alone with his dad who has to go in with his dad to work and his dad happens to work at the very top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, the restaurant called Windows on the World. And, that is where Brandon is inside the North Tower when the first plane hits on September 11th. And he has to try and find a way to survive and maybe away if he can to rescue his father. The second story is about a girl named Reshmina. She is 11 years old, and she lives in Afghanistan in the present day. And, she is, she's a really good student at school, she has learned English and she's hoping to maybe get a job as a translator, or maybe a teacher to help out her family and she's really excited when American soldiers come to her village, so she can try out her English. But almost as soon as the American soldiers arrived, they are attacked by the Taliban, a radical Islamic group. And she and her family end up taking in one of the wounded American soldiers into their home to try and protect him. But her twin brother runs away to tell the Taliban where the soldier is and now Reshmina has to go after her brother and try and stop him. Or else he'll bring the Taliban back and they may kill the soldier and may kill the entire village.
Pamela Kirkland 7:29
It's such a cool way to tell the story. Why did you want to do it from two different characters' perspectives, from two different people in two different countries?
Alan Gratz 7:40
I could have told the story of 9/11 just by telling the story of Brandon in the North Tower trying to survive. And I was tempted to just do that, to just tell the story of that day of September 11, 2001. But the message at the end of that day was Muslim terrorists are coming to kill us. And that day they were. But, that has not been the story of the last 20 years. Since then, we've had other more pressing problems as a nation to deal with. We've had pandemics as everyone has seen, racism, we've had climate change issues. We've had domestic terrorists and that's just to name a few things. And I thought if I write a book, where the end feeling is, oh my gosh, we have to be on guard from Muslim terrorists, that I felt like that would send a very different message that was the message of 20 years ago, not today. And I thought, well, how do I show how the world has changed, and where we are now because of this. And I thought, well, to do that I must show something in the present day. And of course, one of the biggest consequences of 9/11 is the war in Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan began just the next month after 9/11 and lasted for almost 20 full years. As we're recording this, it ended just a few days ago. And, so I knew that if I was going to write a book about 9/11, and its consequences, that I had to also show one of its biggest consequences, and that was the war in Afghanistan.
Pamela Kirkland 9:14
Okay, so let's talk about the ages of the characters, because that's something that was really important to the book, why, why not have some of them be teenagers? Why did you pick the age range that you did?
Alan Gratz 9:25
Sure. I write for middle-grade readers and in general, that's the same age range as the audience for your podcast. And, so when I'm writing about kids, when I'm writing books for kids, I want my main characters to fall into that age range. I want them to be able to see themselves in the characters. I think it really helps young readers to empathize with the characters and their situation. If they can think oh my gosh, if that could have been me, right? If I had been in that situation, that would be me running around and having to deal with this crisis. And, so I always try to write my characters to be in the age range of my readers, or just a little bit older. Sometimes when I write about war situations, you know, we don't thankfully put 12-year-old soldiers into battle. And so I might need to write about somebody who's a little bit older than that. But for the most part, when I'm writing about a situation like 9/11, or the war in Afghanistan, from a civilian point of view, I bring in a young character. And of course, in this book, savvy readers may pick up that my characters are ages 9 and 11. And that is a little hidden easter egg because this book is about 9/11. And so it's not a big deal, but since both of those age ranges fall in the group of people I'm writing for, I thought it would be a nice little, hidden easter egg to put their ages 9 and 11.
Pamela Kirkland 10:56
I would think most of your readers have been born after 9/11. How did you think about that when you were writing the book? How did you take that into account?
Alan Gratz 11:07
So whenever I approach writing about a historical event that happened before the lifetime of my readers, I always have to try and remember to give the context. Context is like, what, what happened around the events you're talking about, right? Like, what happened before an event? What happened during it, and then what happened after it. And so it was really important to me to not only show what happened that day but to also talk a little bit about how we got to that place. What have we done as a country that made somebody want to do this to us? Right? There's never any justification for acts of violence like this. But you have to, but for some reason, somebody was so angry at us that they wanted to do this. And many of the books that I read about 9/11 said, Oh, how did we not see this coming? But, very few of the books that I read said, oh, why did this happen in the first place? And I thought that's a question we really need to be answering. And so, as much as I can, I get at the reasons for this, and then the actual events, and then the fallout from those events. So, I always try to put things in context for my young readers to show not just the event, but the circumstances around it.
Pamela Kirkland 12:25
And I saw a talk that you gave in the book where you talked about some of the fallout, but some of the things that change that you wouldn't necessarily think about. Like the end of Disney's Lilo and Stitch had to change completely because it ended with the hijacking of a Boeing 747 and to watch that so close to what had happened on 9/11. Disney decided this is not a good idea and changed it.
Alan Gratz 12:51
Yes, there were so many things in American pop culture that changed after 9/11. Representations of terrorism, representations of buildings falling down, whether they were the Twin Towers or not. All of those things became really triggering kinds of things to watch for many Americans as we were still dealing with the trauma. And when I wrote this book, Ground Zero 20 years later, I still found all those fears and all that anger and all that, that confusion bubbling back up as I was researching this and writing it and it was happening all over again. And I think that we have to begin to really process those feelings and deal with them as adults to be able to help young people understand what happened.
Pamela Kirkland 13:42
Yeah, we can't just not talk about it if we want them to really understand what it was and what it meant. And so, my last question for you is just any advice for our Ten listeners who may want to start a writing career of their own one day.
Alan Gratz 13:58
Absolutely. Look, I knew I wanted to be a writer from when I was a kid. And I was writing fanfiction. So I love fanfiction. Fanfiction is when you take your favorite TV show or comic book or movie, and you write your own stories about those characters. Fanfiction is an amazing way to get started as a writer because a lot of the work is done for you. Somebody else made up the world, somebody else made up the characters. And one of the great things about it is you get to practice writing the voice of other characters. The voice is not just what their actual voice sounds like coming out of their mouth, but how they speak, right? What kind of expressions do they use? I would also say write a lot. So if you want to be a writer, write a story, finish it, share it with your friends and family and then write another one and write another one. The best way to get published is to become better at writing. And it's just like if you want to play basketball or play the violin or become a great dancer or a great painter. You don't just do it by sitting around on the couch. Thinking, uh, you know, one day I'm going to play in the NBA. Now you got to go out and practice, you got to shoot free throws, you got to shoot three-pointers. You got to do layups, you got to run drills. And it's the same thing with writing, right? You have to sit in your chair with your notebook or your computer, and you actually have to write a lot. And the more you write, the better you get.
Pamela Kirkland 15:19
Very cool.
Bethany Van Delft 15:30
On 9/11, many first responders, people who are trained to respond to an emergency rushed in to help workers evacuate from the burning World Trade Center. Just like the essential workers that we are grateful for today during the pandemic, the first responders were brave people who risked their safety to help others. The firefighters, police, and paramedics saved thousands by their heroic actions, and 411 first responders lost their own lives that day. Many first responders are still dealing with long-term health effects from being at Ground Zero at the World Trade Center that day. The air was filled with toxic chemicals and over the years, many first responders fell sick with respiratory diseases, even cancer. The US government set up a fund called the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund to help, but not everyone in Congress supported it and until last year, it was a battle to keep it going. Last year Congress acted and made the fund permanent. This means that first responders who need medical treatment no longer need to worry about paying for their medical care and can get the help they very much deserve.
Bethany Van Delft 16:51
Up next, It's time for...
Various Voices 16:54
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 16:57
Trivia on The Ten there is a special exhibit at the 9/11 Museum and Memorial that recognizes the hundreds of dogs that helped with the search and rescue effort and comforted victims on 9/11. What is the exhibit called? Is it a) helpful K-9's, b) K-9 courage or c) cuddly K-9's?
Bethany Van Delft 17:26
Did you guess it? The answer is B. The special exhibit is called K-9 Courage. The letter K and then the number nine is police shorthand for the word canine, c a n i n e. The exhibit recognizes the courage of the dogs that supported the search and rescue effort that day. The exhibit came together after photographer Charlotte Dumas traveled around the US and took portraits of 15 of the retired dogs. Those photos and many showing the dogs at work make up the exhibit. You can see some of the pictures of these courageous canines and read more about the exhibit at the link in our show notes. Thanks, brave doggies!
Bethany Van Delft 18:16
Okay, that's it, times up. That's the end of the Ten for today. Thank you so much for listening to this special episode. Make sure to talk to the grownups in your household if you have questions. And, we've included a link to the 9/11 Memorial Museum website for more resources about how to discuss terrorism and the impact of 9/11 with your family. By learning and discussing, we can all work together to build community and understanding. Here's a last note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. You can go deeper into today's stories by visiting thetennews.com. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is reflecting today and includes Tracey Crookes, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, and Nathalie Alonso. Pamela Kirkland contributed to this episode. And, special thanks to Alan Gratz for joining us today. And to fifth-grade teacher Talia Goodkin from the San Francisco school for introducing us to Alan's work. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft. And thanks for listening to The Ten News. Don't forget to check out our show notes today.
