欧宝娱乐

“I felt so much pride, so much love. You get a handful of days like this in a lifetime. Take in every minute. They鈥檒l be over soon enough, and you never know what tomorrow will bring.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“All my life my dad felt this need to protect his kids from a war he fought, a war I believed could never reach out and touch us, could never hurt us鈥攁nd yet he fed us lies with his answers, shielding us from the truth about what he did there, about what he saw, about who he was before the war, and about what he became because of it. He lied to protect us from his memories, from his nightmares. Standing with my dad at The Wall, I knew the truth鈥攏o one could know so many names engraved in granite if he 'never was in danger.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“I鈥檓 clinging to one last thought: pain is the harbinger of hope. You have to be alive to feel pain. If you are alive, then you have purpose. If you have purpose, then you have hope.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“I have this thought, it鈥檚 horrible, and it makes me sick, but it鈥檚 true: one day these students will grow up and have their own kids, and they鈥檙e going to name them for men and women who will die in this war.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“This is my worst fear. It鈥檚 not keeping my students safe from terrorists, it鈥檚 knowing what to do when the Chaplain comes to take Johnny out of class because not letting the terrorists win means sometimes the good guys are going to die. And those good guys have kids, and they鈥檙e sitting in my classroom.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“Teaching isn鈥檛 rocket science. It鈥檚 about being engaged, listening, paying attention. Despite conventional wisdom, you don鈥檛 need to talk a lot to teach well. You do need to care, though. Not so much about what people think of you or whether or not they like you, but about the kids and doing what鈥檚 best for them.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“I鈥檓 in my classroom and I鈥檓 looking at this girl, but all I can see is my dad on the ground, in front of The Wall, telling the truth, finally鈥攈is knees drawn and his chest heaving鈥攁nd when people pass by they look the other way, except for this one lady who stops to give my dad a hug. She gets down on her knees to reach him, and now she鈥檚 crying with a stranger, and without asking I know it鈥檚 because she鈥檚 lost something, too, and I wonder if in comforting my dad she thinks she can find it again. Probably not. It doesn鈥檛 work that way.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“Honestly, I had no idea how to respond. My senior year of college I鈥檇 taken a seminar titled Public Education: Situations and Strategies. I thought about emailing my professor, maybe suggest some new topics and help him get current. Maybe he鈥檇 invite me back as a guest lecturer. He鈥檇 probably expect some strategies along with the situations though, so I guess that wouldn鈥檛 work, but whatever.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“Military life is hard, even cruel鈥攅specially for the kids.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“The service members who defend our way of life ask very little in return, but they deserve teachers who will be as relentless in teaching their children as the military is in protecting our interests at home and abroad.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“The meeting began well, meaning it had the potential for being short.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“We all lose people. We all have to live in the aftermath. It鈥檚 how we move forward that counts, but sometimes we are tethered to something in our past that won鈥檛 let us move forward.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“It鈥檇 be easy to blame everything on 9/11 or the wars that came after. It鈥檚 really about the choices we made. By necessity we adapt to the realities of the world we live in, but if we forget that how we live shapes and influences the world around us, then we鈥檝e already lost.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“Service members will only stay on active duty if they can provide for their families鈥攁nd DOD schools provide a world-class education that has proven time and again to be an incentive for sailors, soldiers, airmen and marines to reenlist. Military dependents that attend DoDDS schools are highly regarded by prestigious universities the world over for a number of reasons, but there鈥檚 one that you鈥檇 have a hard time replicating in a stateside school system: they鈥檝e lived overseas, traveled the world, seen and experienced other cultures, learned foreign languages through immersion, and they鈥檝e gained an understanding of the world that you can鈥檛 get in a traditional classroom. Add a rigorous curriculum and a long track record of high test scores throughout DoDDS, and it鈥檚 pretty easy to see why military kids are in such high demand.”
― Tucker Elliot, You Look Like A Teacher

“Cope? Adapt? Uh, no. These are military kids. They roll with it. I once asked a new student, 'See any familiar faces?' She pointed out various kids and replied, 'Seattle, Tampa, Okinawa, New Jersey.' For military dependents school is literally a non-stop revolving door of old and new friends.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Rainy Season

“On the TV and in the newspapers all we hear and read is 'live your life or the terrorists win' and it sounds great, I鈥檓 all for that, except my kids won鈥檛 ask for a bathroom pass because the faculty facilities are on the first floor of the building and the MPs patrolling the second floor won鈥檛 go downstairs on their shift鈥攕o I鈥檝e got middle school kids afraid to take a piss because there might be a soldier in the stall next to them carrying a loaded M- 16鈥攂ut hell yes, I鈥檓 all for 'live your life' and screw the terrorists, and screw all the countries who harbor and support them. I鈥檓 on board with that, except I鈥檝e got these kids who stay home now, because they鈥檙e scared riding a bus with soldiers carrying guns, knowing that one soldier isn鈥檛 enough, so there鈥檚 a military truck full of soldiers with even bigger guns following the bus 'just in case.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“This is who I was, before I was dead. When I cared, when I was relentless.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“If I can be perfectly blunt, his humanities teacher was an ass.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“I felt a hand on my back, movement behind me, my guys making room, someone squeezing into our circle, and then one last hand joined the pile: my Korean aide. I guess it made sense. We were her real family. The closest thing she鈥檇 ever had to a real family, at least. All year she said maybe five words a day. 'Now kick some ass,' she said.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“I asked my dad once if his high school teachers began treating kids differently during Vietnam, when they knew some of their students would be drafted and sent to war. I was curious because for sure we鈥檇 started treating our military kids differently after 9/11. He just shrugged and changed the subject, like he always did. And that was okay with me. He鈥檇 go back and change a lot of things if he could; and like everyone else, I鈥檇 give anything to go back to the day before 9/11鈥攂ut all we can do is move forward.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“Always Sami. I was tethered to her somehow. To that scared little girl I鈥檇 found on the staircase nearly a year earlier; to the past, when teaching was simpler and I could care about everyday problems, when being relentless meant running two extra laps, not waiting for an MP to search the undercarriage of a bus for bombs before letting students approach it.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“It was too late to pray, though. The sky was clear. The helicopters were gone. Too late for so many things. My fists hit the floor. My head hit the floor. My heart broke, hardened, and I lost my faith. That鈥檚 when the killing thoughts came. When it felt right to punish everyone who let this happen. I could start with Angel鈥檚 dad鈥攂ut where would it stop?”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“The only thing worse than his arrogance was his incompetence. He was a bully, behaving like an ass. I saw Angel though, not him. The memorial was right there, just outside the window. It鈥檚 in the flowers, and it makes me angry. Angel liked to sit on the couch, watch TV, eat chips. She hated outside. Maybe I should have been a bully and an ass to Angel鈥檚 parents. Maybe Angel and Grace would still be alive if I鈥檇 behaved like this piece of shit teacher.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“We could never go back to how things were on the day before 9/11, but maybe I could go back to who I was.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“I stood with my mom in the cemetery. She felt terrible pain. My grandmother is with God. My mom has to continue living. It鈥檚 not so easy, moving forward.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“In Korea I鈥檇 been so afraid that Sami would lose her dad. She did, but she didn鈥檛 get a flag. He went to Doha, then to Baghdad, then to Kabul, then to someplace else, and then to a different someplace else, on and on. He鈥檇 come home, leave again, come home, leave again, until one day he came home a different person altogether. Sami lost Angel, lost her family, and then she lost herself.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“In total this journey will take five flights and fifty-five hours, but in reality it began four decades and two generations ago when my uncle died in Vietnam.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“The last two days I鈥檝e been on long bus rides, driven through the countryside on the back of a motorbike, and crossed rivers on wooden boats, traversing currents into a different century. It鈥檚 late and dark, but I鈥檓 so close now. My uncle died five kilometers from here.”
― Tucker Elliot, The Day Before 9/11

“As calls rang out the world over for new treaties and organizations to be established with the intent of preventing future wars, America and her allies took a more realistic approach to the problem鈥攚e maintained allied military bases across Europe and Asia and we stationed troops in these foreign territories on a permanent basis. We weren鈥檛 invaders or conquerors and for sure we had no intention of being an empire. We were liberators. That鈥檚 all. But having fought and sacrificed so much and for so long, the pragmatic thing to do was to follow this simple philosophy: it鈥檚 great to have dialogue, it just works a lot better when you have a strong military strategically placed and ready to act around the globe.”
― Tucker Elliot, You Look Like A Teacher

“They were worried about keeping military families strong. They were worried about the stress and strain of prolonged military service and how it would affect our military readiness the next time a Hitler-wannabe reared his ugly head. As they made a list of pros and cons for sending families overseas, they never imagined that DOD schools would be the best possible solution to nearly every problem they could envision. The most unpredictable phenomena occurred. The DOD literally created a culture of kids whose life experiences were so rich, yet so different from where they鈥檇 come from, that as they grew in years the people they most related to, the people they most wanted to be around, were other military kids who had the same shared experience. Military kids became military members鈥攁nd they鈥檝e kept us strong, our families, armed forces, our country, all of us.”
― Tucker Elliot, You Look Like A Teacher