Two weeks after September 11, 2001, my term as a local school board member came to an end, and with it the last in an every-two-week series of columns in the local paper during my three-year term. What I wrote in that September 25, 2001, column seems equally on the mark this September 11 -- 15 "war on terror" years later. Here it is.
October 4th will mark the 59th anniversary of a shock to our nation. Not a deafening explosion. A faint beep from a 183-pound, basketball-sized orbiting satellite. Sputnik meant the Soviet Union was ahead of us in the space race.
Our response? Something called "The National Defense Education Act" -- emphasis on "defense." More money for math, science and foreign language instruction. This time let's include social studies.
This column was originally intended as a review of the board's accomplishments. Its remaining agenda. Two weeks of shock, grief and anger from terrorists' barbaric attacks on our nation changed that.
9/11, 2001, Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan View Photo Page Source at flickr.com/photos/28567825@N03/4981634604/ Owner: cliff1066 ? at flickr.com/people/28567825@N03/ License: Attribution
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It's time for the president and Congress to get back to it.
Some call for a U.S. revenge of violence. Others plead for greater understanding. Either way, education is a major part of the answer.
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