For most people September eleventh
is a day that will live in infamy, comparable almost to that of the devastating
attack on Pearl Harbor December seventh 1941. Many of us on campus remember
being in elementary school, in recess or eating lunch and then going back to
their rooms only to be confused by the teachers reaction to something on the
television. Even if we weren’t directly affected by the attacks at the time we
have all come to realize the full impact of that day. It was a day that started
war, a war that would be one of the longest in American history. By this time
if someone wasn’t hurt by the attacks, they are now. Many friends and family
joined the armed forces to fight this terror. Many lives were lost in the war. People
started to question the motive of the war, questioning our purpose in the Middle
East. Was it to protect the indigenous people who live there? Or was it for
oil? Why did we have to be there? It was almost like the Vietnam “police action”.
Many were opposed to Americans going to fight someone else’s war, and for what?
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| Joe Strauch remembers 11 years ago |
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| Joe Allen thinks about where he was and how he was effected |
Junior Joe Allen remembers where he
was that day 11 years ago. “All the
teachers were talking about it. The TV was on but it was turned so we couldn’t see
anything. At the time it had no effect on me, I was just confuse about what was
going on”. For many of us that’s how it was. Not knowing what was happening but having that
feeling that something terrible was happening. Joe Strauch, a freshman, was in
second grade and remembers “everyone panicking in school. And when I got home
my mom was watching TV crying. I wondered why this would make my mom cry and didn’t
really pay it much attention.” Personally what I remember is coming back from
somewhere and my teacher looked distraught. Somehow someone had heard something
and was saying that there was going to be a plane crashing into our school. Among our small class there was a panic that
was palpable but was soon eliminated by our teacher who reassured us that that
was not going to happen. Tyler Beauchamp, a junior, remembers his fourth grade
class that day. “Everyone was talking about it but no one would or could explain
what was going on.” At the time it had
no effect on him either. At this point in our lives, being nine or ten, we didn’t
know anything like that could happen. How could we have been prepared for
something like that? How could anyone.
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| Tyler Beauchamp |
What would have had the most impact
on us would have been coming home to our parents being home with the TV on
watching the news and planes crashing into buildings. I couldn’t help but think
“what movie is this?” only to later realize that it had actually happened. The next
few days some of my friends weren’t in school. I knew a handful of people who
had relatives working on the top floors of the towers who didn’t make it. Reflecting
on it now it is more and more painful to go back and watch documentaries about
it. The ones I was shown in school had footage of people jumping out of the
buildings and hitting the awnings. So we could literally hear death. It was a day that would live in infamy, a day
that would start a war, a day we won’t forget. September 11, 2001.
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