2008 Woodie Awards
Our View: Lack of Sept. 11 remembrance on campus a disappointment
Issue date: 9/14/07 Section: Opinion
As Sept. 11, 2007, has come and gone, so have students. Class to class, hour to hour, the date was nothing more than a passing thought in some students' minds. No bells were tolled, no names were read, not even a moment of silence was observed for the nearly 3,000 men, women and children we lost on that fateful day in our history.
Sure, posters were hung in the hallways and stairwells of a few of the classroom buildings, and the flags on campus were lowered to half-staff-which was mandated by the state, by the way. But there were no services, no vigils, no gatherings around the campus Flight 93 memorial (which is located across from Boozel Dining Hall and was dedicated in September 2005) and no organized moments of silence. Instead, there were only the informal classroom discussions that individual professors conducted with students. In fact, if a visitor were to step onto campus Tuesday, it would seem that the 11th was just another ordinary, rainy, overcast day in Slippery Rock.
With news reports splashed over every conceivable medium, it is a wonder why those in the position to prepare events on campus chose, instead, to present the "Food Dude"-a TV cook who appeared in the University Union at a UPB-sponsored event-rather than any sort of remembrance activity. Something as simple as observing a moment of silence in front of the 9/11 memorial would have been sufficient, especially if scheduled at a time when the greatest number of people could come together to pay tribute (common hour, anyone?).
Earlier this week, The Rocket inquired around campus and found that not a single event had been planned to remember those who were forever lost on that day. This gave us great pause, and we asked ourselves: "Is there really nothing happening to commemorate 9/11? Has the tragedy of that day slipped our minds this quickly?"
While some may say that the lack of an organized remembrance service of any kind is a sign that we're moving on as a country, it's hard to overlook the fact that this was and continues to be the defining moment of our generation to this point. Similar to the Kennedy assassination, 9/11 is that one "where-were-you?" event that forcibly united us as a people on a national and even global scale.
Six years to the day of the worst tragedy on American soil, the lack of any semblance of observance by students, faculty and staff is at best disheartening. We should feel at least some sense of loss. We must never forget that those 19 terrorists came to our soil and attacked our Pentagon, our World Trade Center and our Flight 93.
It's impossible to speculate about exactly how many years down the road we "should" stop organizing ceremonies to commemorate the event, but doing so only six years after the fact is, in our view, a bit premature.
Sure, posters were hung in the hallways and stairwells of a few of the classroom buildings, and the flags on campus were lowered to half-staff-which was mandated by the state, by the way. But there were no services, no vigils, no gatherings around the campus Flight 93 memorial (which is located across from Boozel Dining Hall and was dedicated in September 2005) and no organized moments of silence. Instead, there were only the informal classroom discussions that individual professors conducted with students. In fact, if a visitor were to step onto campus Tuesday, it would seem that the 11th was just another ordinary, rainy, overcast day in Slippery Rock.
With news reports splashed over every conceivable medium, it is a wonder why those in the position to prepare events on campus chose, instead, to present the "Food Dude"-a TV cook who appeared in the University Union at a UPB-sponsored event-rather than any sort of remembrance activity. Something as simple as observing a moment of silence in front of the 9/11 memorial would have been sufficient, especially if scheduled at a time when the greatest number of people could come together to pay tribute (common hour, anyone?).
Earlier this week, The Rocket inquired around campus and found that not a single event had been planned to remember those who were forever lost on that day. This gave us great pause, and we asked ourselves: "Is there really nothing happening to commemorate 9/11? Has the tragedy of that day slipped our minds this quickly?"
While some may say that the lack of an organized remembrance service of any kind is a sign that we're moving on as a country, it's hard to overlook the fact that this was and continues to be the defining moment of our generation to this point. Similar to the Kennedy assassination, 9/11 is that one "where-were-you?" event that forcibly united us as a people on a national and even global scale.
Six years to the day of the worst tragedy on American soil, the lack of any semblance of observance by students, faculty and staff is at best disheartening. We should feel at least some sense of loss. We must never forget that those 19 terrorists came to our soil and attacked our Pentagon, our World Trade Center and our Flight 93.
It's impossible to speculate about exactly how many years down the road we "should" stop organizing ceremonies to commemorate the event, but doing so only six years after the fact is, in our view, a bit premature.
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