Forty Years, Today

I was 16 years old sitting in my 11th Grade English class, window row on the quad, at ANOKA Senior High School, 5th seat back just after lunch when MS Fuchs informed us that President Kennedy had been shot, killed in Dallas. Forty years have passed and I have come to understand that I am defined by that moment: the Vietnam War, My Lai, the Tet offensive, Kent State................9/11.