Friday, September 21, 2001

Tragedy truly tarnishes past doubts of America
By Megan Rhodes
Skiff Staff

In the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of New Yorkers witnessed the beginning of the greatest terrorist attack America had ever seen. As the events unfolded, many Americans slept peacefully in their beds.

I was one of those Americans.

In fact, I was anything but thrilled when I woke to the sounds of the television my roommate had just turned on. As I turned to find out what she could possibly need to watch during my last few minutes of precious sleep, I was sure she had found a showing of “Die Hard” or “Armageddon.”

It wasn’t until several minutes later that we realized we were watching the end of the world on the screen, but this time, Bruce Willis was not there to save us.

Campus became a whirlwind in the following hours. Students tied up cellular phone networks, frantically calling in a search of a brother who worked in the World Trade Center, a fellow student interning in Washington or a friend visiting New York City on vacation.

The Student Center Lounge was packed with students watching news coverage in complete silence. Some sat pinned to the screen with wide eyes and their hands over their mouths. Some held hands. Some turned their heads each time video was replayed showing another fiery crash as a United Airlines plane plummeted into the second tower of the World Trade Center.

Sounds of traffic on the University Drive seemed to die down at 12:45 p.m. when a large prayer group on Sadler Hall’s front lawn slowly and tearfully sang the national anthem as they faced their flag, which flew at half-staff. Never in my lifetime had the song rang so beautiful or touched me so much.

I was never a fervent patriot. I never thought I would feel so devastated that my country was violated. But that afternoon, I felt like screaming whenever someone would pass me on the sidewalk or in the hall and have the nerve to cheerily say, “How are you?” as they walked on by, leaving me no time to respond.

How am I? How are you? Aren’t you angry? Aren’t you scared?

Don’t you know that your life is going to change forever?

I didn’t understand why people could let this event leave their lives untouched, why they could head to the library, thanking their lucky stars that they could take advantage of their day off from classes to finally get caught up on their reading in General Psychology.

I felt like this for most of the day, Like I should be depressed and everyone should be depressed. After all the times I had seen television news coverage of a horrible disaster in a far-away country and flipped past it, I didn’t want a single human being to flip past what had happened to my country.

But for a moment that night, my anger was extinguished. Hundreds of TCU students gathered together around Frog Fountain after dark and filled the lawn with light as they held candles high and together mourned the devastation that seemed so far away, but had affected us so much. Every race, every ethnicity, every religion on this campus was there, and for a moment, instead of being blacks, whites, Christians, Jews, Mexicans or Thais, we were all Americans.

I’m sure the videotapes and audio clips of the horrifying crashes and their aftermath will be shown for years to come. But when I remember Sept. 11, 2001, I will remember the pride I felt when I saw those people unite, even for a moment, to be a community.

In the recent months, I’ve found it hard to argue with my foreign friends when they say America has no culture, and that the “typical” American has no face. But on Sept. 11,I saw that face. And on it I saw the expression of determination, compassion and faith.

Never again will I sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and not truly understand what every word means.

Never again will I take patriotism so lightly.

Never again will I doubt this nation.

Megan Rhodes is a junior advertising/public relations major from Kansas City, Mo. She can be contacted at (m.d.rhodes@student.tcu.edu).