While we know many of you are contributing generously to various campaigns and causes, we hope you will join us in an effort to help our community and the organizations and charities that we love. As previously announced, MAA is adopting a different local non-profit organization every month. For September, MAA is excited to partner with SMYAL (pronounced “smile”)! SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders) supports and empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region.
Through youth leadership, SMYAL creates opportunities for LGBTQ youth to build self-confidence, develop critical life skills, and engage their peers and community through service and advocacy. Committed to social change, SMYAL builds, sustains and advocates for programs, policies and services that LGBTQ youth need as they grow into adulthood. In addition to working in schools and communities across the DMV, SMYAL has a comprehensive housing program for homeless LGBTQ youth that provides safe and stable shelter, food, case management services, crisis intervention and community support for its residents.
We are honored to have SMYAL as our first partner. We hope you will consider giving $100, $50, $25 or even $10 to help us meet our goal of raising $1,000 this month. Click here to give now!
Remembering 9/11
It’s hard to believe this is the 19th anniversary of the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center. This day each year is always somewhat of a challenge for me. Although I was only five years old on September 11, 2001, being a New Yorker still makes this day a bit triggering. I can still remember sitting in the classroom when out of nowhere, parents started to rush in, grab their kids, and start to cry. I remember feeling uneasy because my parents still hadn’t shown up and although I did not know what was going on, I just knew I wanted my mom. Finally, she appeared in the doorway and we rushed home. I can still recall her walking outside to our cul de sac and crying in the arms of our neighbors. It’s a terrifying image to have in my head all these years later because I can remember that I just did not understand what was happening.
I can recall my dad arriving home hours after he normally did on a weekday, looking drained and distraught. It was only years later that I discovered that being a high school teacher in New York City, he was tasked with staying with his students for close to 12 hours until they learned if their families were safe.
When I got a bit older, my mother finally told me what it was like for her that day, as she, too, worked in Manhattan. She told me that as her train was arriving in Grand Central, someone with a radio called out “A plane just crashed into one of the Twin Towers!” She couldn’t believe it, but assumed it was just a fluke accident. It was only when she was walking to her office that she discovered the second plane had hit and this was, in fact, no fluke accident. She began to see the smoke fill the sky around her, and watched as people began to scatter in every direction. She made her way back to Grand Central to try and catch a train home, but as people feared the train station might be the next spot of attack, trains stopped running. She was miraculously able to hail a cab, and agreed to let another woman, named Beth, ride with her. She remembers riding out of the city and looking out the window at the absolute pandemonium on the streets. Finally, she made it to Queens, where Beth’s car was parked, and she graciously agreed to drive my mom back to Westchester where she could pick me up from school.
Every year, for the last 19 years, my mother calls Beth on September 11th and they catch up on everything that has happened in the past 365 days. Every year, my dad tells the story to his new students, and they comment on what a hero he must have been for the kids in his classroom that day. And every year, I get a bit emotional and uneasy. I think about the people I know who lost parents or friends or loved ones in one of the buildings. I think about my family friends who could have easily been in their office in the first tower that day, but somehow, inexplicably, missed their alarm that morning. And I continuously remind myself how lucky I am that my parents were both able to stay safe and make it home to me that day.
This year, in particular, seems harder than usual. This anniversary of 9/11 is a complicated one in an absolute crazy year, as our country grapples with a health crisis, searches its soul over racial injustice, watches the devastating effects of climate change in real time, and prepares to choose a new leader come November. Still, I believe it is imperative that we take the time to reflect on that horrid day 19 years ago, especially in a year like this. It can help us remember the nation we are at our core, when tragedy strikes - a nation of togetherness, camaraderie, and hope. It can lead us on a path forward out of this darkness by reminding us of the America we can be and the America we want to be. - Lexi