“.Good we strive for is worth suffering for.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, a student in one of my English 300 courses e-mailed me that he would not make it to class due to the attack on the World Trade Center. I had not heard anything at that time, so I rushed to Garrett Conference Center to see legions of students standing around the television, confused and disbelieving, I suspect.

My initial response was outrage – a privileged emotion for the heretofore relative sense of security I have enjoyed as an American citizen. After the initial shock at what was in front of my eyes and the epic pain of those immediately affected, I saw human spirit rise above the attempt to create despair and chaos, assuring me that logos (in all its sane forms) would annihilate annihilation. And so it has. New babies, new buildings, Beethoven, all forms of beauty carry civilization higher than any attempts by terrorists to bring civilization down.

I remember hearing insane “solutions” that, if carried through, would have sunk us lower than the attackers. People throughout the world said “no” to this outrage on Sept. 11. Their sympathy and support for the U.S. during this time let me know that the good we strive for is worth suffering for. I am more resolved than ever to welcome the persecuted from around the world to enlarge the greatness that is America.

On this day, I will read the Declaration of Independence and reflect on its messages, all of them. To those of you who have died in this tragedy, and all tragedies, “Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

Keith Epley

English instructor

Always remember where you were

I gave one of my classes their first test today. Before beginning I said something like this:

I was a little girl when President Kennedy was assassinated. They say that if you were old enough to remember anything, that was one of the memories that will always remain with you. And that appears to be true. I remember the adults around me crying. I remember the days of mourning. It is true, events like those are with you to the day you die.

So it is also true with Sept. 11. You will always remember where you were, what you were doing, and who was with you when you learned and saw what happened that day.

And so it should be so.

Pat Minors

Public Health Associate Professor

And old enough to remember Kennedy, Oswald and Jack Ruby

Nothing to fear

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the significance of Sept. 11. It is my recollection of last year that there were many hysterical feelings after the attacks.

There was the bus that was hijacked in Nashville that the news was guessing might be a terrorist act. Then on a call-in radio program the woman who saw a man with a “turban” and almost fainted.

These misplaced fears are the very thing that these men were hoping would happen. That we are seeing some of the same hysteria this year, I find alarming. Many years ago FDR said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” These words were never more appropriate than now.

Reed L. Bergen

Theater and Dance instructor

Don’t dwell on Sept. 11

To me the whole Sept. 11 tragedy needs to be put in perspective. It was the result of failed policies from the previous administration, but rather than dwelling on that note the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam took more American lives than the Sept. 11 event. Yet we still do not have national holidays dedicated to these events.

I think the media has covered this event thoroughly and that we need to prepare ourselves for future events, plus continue to build our lives. The more we distract ourselves by reliving Sept. 11, the more the terrorists get what they want, which is attention.

Jeff Jones

Consultant

Treat Sept. 11 as a day of remembrance

. I awoke this morning worrying about a biology exam. This came not from my pure callousness toward such a significant and painful day in history, but from the reality of my chores. I had not the time to go to the ceremony at the Kentucky Building or even a simple tribute of turning on the television to reflect on last year’s events.

Now as the sun falls in the western sky and the shadows grow long, I wish I had had the time today. The time to ponder the time to question, the time to cry and simply the time to remember the tragedy that fell upon this country on Sept. 11.

An exam should not come between remembering, nor should a lecture or washing a load of laundry. This day should be a day of REMEMBRANCE! And next year, I hope you, along with myself can treat it with the respect it deserves.

Lex Sonne

Bardstown Junior

Pass memories to next generation

I didn’t cover Sept. 11 much at all (in class) because I remembered an old professor I had back in Wisconsin and what he did.

I remember exactly what I was doing, where I was and how I reacted when, as a 19-year-old student, I heard the news in that campus cafeteria about 12:20 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963.

The day JFK was assassinated, most of the classes I had that day were either canceled or had us just sitting in the classroom, listening to the radio of the reports. Some professors were crying.

But, my last class had this old history professor who started the lecture and just went on for the whole hour and not even mentioning the event.

I was a bit embittered toward him at that time, but I later realized that what he was trying to do is bring some stability to our emotions which, on that day, were totally disrupted. He was trying to say don’t worry, everything’s going to be alright, we’ll get through this.

Camelot was gone. The Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis – all that was still here and we were fearing a major world-wide change in our security. At that time we thought the bombers could be on their way.

So, a year after Sept. 11, I simply told my students to write down everything they remembered about that day. Where they were. What they were doing. Who they were with. What they thought. How they reacted. Write it down so that years from now, when their kids or grandkids ask about Sept. 11, the memories won’t be so faded.

The students of Sept. 11 could just go over to a desk, a drawer or book-case and dig out some old, yellowed scraps of paper or an old floppy disc, then refresh their memory as they relate all of what happened, from their perspective, on Sept. 11.

TV video has captured forever the pictures, but the personal memories fade over the years. TV also allows all of us to “be there,” even if we were back on the Hill.

In the 1950s, a weekly, half-hour, quasi-documentary program was on TV called, “You Are There”, and was hosted by a stentorial-voiced announcer named Walter Cronkite. Using actors and studio scenes, historical events were reenacted to give the audience a sense of being there on the day when the event occurred.

The show ended with Cronkite saying “(the date of the event)… what kind of a day was it? It was a day like all days… filled with those events which alter and illuminate our time…. and you were there…”

TV put everyone in Manhattan on Sept. 11. It was a day with an event that altered our time. We were there through TV, but, each of us has our own story to pass on to the next generation. Write down what you remember and keep it safe.

Jim Le Tourneau

Journalism and Broadcasting assistant professor