Yo, Miss! (No. 28)

Back At It

I started my 22nd year of teaching last week.

As difficult as it is to return to work after the summer, every time I return to my classroom I feel back at home. I am reminded why I do what I do both as an educator inside the classroom and as a person outside the classroom.

Even though I have been teaching the same subjects for over two decades - U.S. History and AP U.S. History - the content never gets old because I get to see it through the eyes of all my new students each year. Even after two days, the majority of my new students appear to be excited about learning, passionate about fighting for equality, and not just capable but enthusiastic about exploring the complexity of the story of America.

Tomorrow is the 22nd anniversary of 9-11. 22 years ago was also supposed to be my first day of student teaching at LaGuardia High School. My current students were not even born yet. That is how long I have been teaching.

When I reflect on who we feared back then right after 9-11, it was foreign terrorists. Today, I fear the domestic terrorists - the ones who were behind the January 6th insurrection and the people who threaten violence and Civil War if Donald Trump gets convicted and is not reelected in 2024.

I know that many people who agree with me still choose to try to stay neutral/moderate/apolitical. They worry about alienating friends, family, and coworkers. I understand why but I think that those of us who agree with promoting a multiracial democracy and resisting fascism need to start speaking out more.

I will never regret using my platform to speak out against injustice. There are still way too many people sitting on the sidelines as we watch these fascists and anti-American people try to keep the United States under the stranglehold of white supremacy. Once I started speaking out, there was no turning back. I know it makes some people in my life uncomfortable. Perhaps they think I’m being hyperbolic, attention-seeking, too negative, too much. But I told myself as a kid when I was first studying social justice movements that if I was ever living during an era when it was another time to protest and speak out, that I would do that. That I would not choose to be on the fence, a moderate, or act like there were “two sides”.

Right now is that time that when you are older and kids ask you what you did when people were banning teaching honest history, banning books, attacking and trying to silence marginalized people, supporting people who led an insurrection against our government - and the list goes on and on - do you want to be able to say “I fought back in the best ways that I could”? Not everyone has to push back the same ways. You don’t need to take to the streets to be an activist. It can be as micro as speaking up at a family dinner when you hear someone say something racist or antisemitic. It can be making calls to get people to vote. But I’ll personally never regret using my platform to speak out - even if it makes someone not want to hire me or promote me or date me or be friends with me anymore. If that makes someone else uncomfortable, that’s okay. I do it because I don’t know how else to function in this current political landscape when the future of our multiracial democracy is at stake.

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Since I am writing this post on the eve of 9-11 and it should arrive in your inbox either tonight or in the morning, I wanted to share something I normally post on my social media on the day:

It is really important that people avoid posting footage of the actual attack on 9-11. It is really triggering to see it even 22 years later, especially if you were here that day and lost loved ones.

That is not how I want to remember the World Trade Center. Instead, I prefer remembering it this way. Two magnificent towers representing the most vibrant city in the world. A city I’ve called home for decades.

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On this day 22 years ago, we all came together in New York City and nothing was ever the same again. I will #NeverForget and we must keep the memory of this gruesome attack alive forever.

The heroes who rushed in to save lives.

The lives lost.

A city that forever changed but reinvented itself like it always does.

A country that tried to enact revenge on the attackers but in retrospect made major irreparable mistakes on the world stage. 

That attack wed me to New York City even more. There is something powerful about living in a place that refuses to give up and always finds a new way to rise out of the ashes, bruised but never broken. Beginning again, again and again and again.

That day when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and The Pentagon and the heroes of Flight 93 prevented another attack on The Capitol further reminded me why I wanted to be a high school United States History teacher.

America came together after 9-11. We rose up against an external threat. Today, we struggle to get people to come together to fight today's threats - a global pandemic, a gun violence epidemic, climate change, the rise of fascism and domestic terrorism, and threats to our basic democratic institutions.

We need to keep remembering and teach that we are capable of coming together and putting partisan differences aside. It happened 22 years ago today (Although we must not forget that there was quickly a rise in Islamophobia and hate crimes against the Muslim community in the United States. We must reckon with that and continue to work to eradicate that) and we must replicate that now if we want to continue the great American experiment.

Thank you for reading. Thank you to those who support my content whether it be by kind messages or some coffee/snack money to give me the fuel to keep teaching the kids, running miles, and fighting these fascists. Here’s My LinkTree

Have a great week xoxo