9/11 debris cleared; memories remain

Whether it's the birth of a child or the Kennedy assassination, everyone has that handful of events in their lives that stick with them. While other memories fade and blur into one another, some stay as vivid as the moment they happened.\nFor the generation of current IU students, one of those moments will be the 90 minutes between the impact of American Airlines flight 11 into the North tower of the World Trade Center, and United Airlines flight 93's stone-like descent into a field outside Shanksville, Pa.\nAfter four years, thousands of fatalities, billions of dollars and a realignment of U.S. foreign policy, IU students from New York and Washington, D.C., still have that day on their minds long after the debris was cleared and the fires extinguished. While many questions might never be answered, the sights and sounds of Sept. 11, 2001, seem to linger, untouched by study sessions, midnight cramming and due dates.\nLike most students, junior Scott Lipsky of Suffern, N.Y., remembers exactly where he was when the first plane collided with the North Tower. \n"I was in my second period, computers in business," he said. "The principal announced it on the loud speaker." \nThe thought of a coordinated terrorist attack was as far from the minds of American citizens as it had been the day before. Seventeen minutes later it became painfully obvious that something greater than anyone could have imagined was happening. History, as the cliché goes, was in the making. \nStill, few could grasp the full scope of devastation.\n"It didn't actually sink in until later that night when President Bush addressed the nation," Lipsky said. \nStephanie Sautter, a sophomore from Washington, D.C., recalls canceled classes and dead cell phones when she first learned of the attacks. "Everyone was trying to make a call because no one was sure what had just happened." Asked of her original reflection, Sautter paused, breaking the silence with, "surreal."\nFour years later, and while some in the country have more or less recovered, the legacy continues. The Pentagon in Washington has been rebuilt and plans have been approved for construction of the Freedom Tower, to be the world's tallest building, on the former site of the WTC. Commenting on the NYC memorial, Lipsky considers it "respectful and proper."\nYesterday, memorial services across America and around the world brought a feeling of solidarity reminiscent of the days and weeks after the original attacks. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush observed a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11 on the front lawn of the White House. \n"Today, again, we are a city that meets in sadness," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, according to the BBC, at the beginning of a somber ceremony in New York City Sunday, where the names of 2,749 victims of the Twin Tower attacks were read. At sunset, two beams of light were projected into the air, visible across the New York skyline.\nRecently-elected Pope Benedict XVI, pleaded for a "global renunciation of hatred and asking for people to work together for justice and peace," according to the BBC.\nThe Moscow Times reported 500,000 people in the central Russian city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, formed a 40-kilometer (about 25 miles) human "anti-terror" chain in a show of solidarity with the survivors of 9/11. \n"They stood side by side, holding hands, to reemphasize the need for international unity in the fight against terrorism," the report said. \nIt seems that even under the altered political landscape that has divided the country and the world along ideological lines, the memorial of the innocent men and women who perished is able to put those issues aside, if only momentarily, to remind people the world over that nothing in the present is too important that we can forget the past.\nAfter four years, thousands of fatalities, billions of dollars and a realignment of U.S. foreign policy, IU students from New York and Washington, D.C., still have that day on their minds long after the debris was cleared and the fires extinguished. While many questions might never be answered, the sights and sounds of Sept. 11, 2001, seem to linger, untouched by study sessions, midnight cramming and due dates.\nLike most students, junior Scott Lipsky of Suffern, N.Y., remembers exactly where he was when the first plane collided with the North Tower. \n"I was in my second period, computers in business," he said. "The principal announced it on the loud speaker." \nThe thought of a coordinated terrorist attack was as far from the minds of American citizens as it had been the day before. Seventeen minutes later it became painfully obvious that something greater than anyone could have imagined was happening. History, as the cliché goes, was in the making. \nStill, few could grasp the full scope of devastation.\n"It didn't actually sink in until later that night when President Bush addressed the nation," Lipsky said. \nStephanie Sautter, a sophomore from Washington, D.C., recalls canceled classes and dead cell phones when she first learned of the attacks. "Everyone was trying to make a call because no one was sure what had just happened." Asked of her original reflection, Sautter paused, breaking the silence with, "surreal."\nFour years later, and while some in the country have more or less recovered, the legacy continues. The Pentagon in Washington has been rebuilt and plans have been approved for construction of the Freedom Tower, to be the world's tallest building, on the former site of the WTC. Commenting on the NYC memorial, Lipsky considers it "respectful and proper."\nYesterday, memorial services across America and around the world brought a feeling of solidarity reminiscent of the days and weeks after the original attacks. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush observed a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11 on the front lawn of the White House. \n"Today, again, we are a city that meets in sadness," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, according to the BBC, at the beginning of a somber ceremony in New York City Sunday, where the names of 2,749 victims of the Twin Tower attacks were read. At sunset, two beams of light were projected into the air, visible across the New York skyline.\nRecently-elected Pope Benedict XVI, pleaded for a "global renunciation of hatred and asking for people to work together for justice and peace," according to the BBC.\nThe Moscow Times reported 500,000 people in the central Russian city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, formed a 40-kilometer (about 25 miles) human "anti-terror" chain in a show of solidarity with the survivors of 9/11. \n"They stood side by side, holding hands, to reemphasize the need for international unity in the fight against terrorism," the report said. \nIt seems that even under the altered political landscape that has divided the country and the world along ideological lines, the memorial of the innocent men and women who perished is able to put those issues aside, if only momentarily, to remind people the world over that nothing in the present is too important that we can forget the past.