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October 2001
NEWS
Students unite to form one voice of hope
WAC gives audience better understanding
IMPRESSIONS
Editorial: We need to
set higher standards
Letters to the
editor:
Da playas gonna play
Men are from the "O" and
women are from "Starbucks"
Court approves peaceful minute
SPECIAL FEATURE
Americans face their
toughest challenge
Proud beyond words to be an American
Rude awakening just the
beginning
People wait for shock to settle
Students react to attacks
FEATURE
Finding the sweetest pad
in Pittsburgh
ENTERTAINMENT
Review of Slaughterhouse by Gail A.
Eisnitz
Street musician is on
prowl in Pittsburgh
EXPRESSIONS
Evangelistic dorm talk with Thomas B. Grosh IV
regarding the events of September 11,01
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October online edition
SPECIAL FEATURE
Rude awakening just the beginning
Rachel K. Reilly
Pittsburgh Standard
It is about 8:45
a.m. Tuesday morning, Sept 11, and I am just sitting at my desk doing my math
homework. The Today Show is on
in the background, and I have now been up since 6:15 a.m. due to the rude
awakening of a blaring fire alarm in my dorm room. It has been a long day
already, but I have no clue what is about to
come.
Matt Lauer
diverges from his interview saying something: “breaking
news....we will be back with more...."
Of course this simple statement immediately grabs my attention. I wonder about
it, asking what it means. I wish my question were never answered because in the
following moments I was witnessing the horrific image of a plane crashing
into the World Trade Center in New York
City. Wow! I think in utter amazement.
This is terrible.
What is this all about?
Again, I wish my question were
never answered because minutes later I feel as though I have a front row
seat for the latest action movie as I watch an enormous plane appear on the
television screen and crash into Building Two of the World Trade Center.
However, this is not Die Hard,
this is today-the real world.
Shock, confusion,
anxiousness: I feel all of these emotions, and I begin to just watch and try to
listen to all the information being spewed out by the news anchors who are
obviously feeling the same way I am. And then shortly after all of this, the
wreckage of the Pentagon is shown on the screen, yet the horror of this Tuesday
morning is not over. The plane crash outside of Somerset is just announced on
the news.
All of these
events seem so surreal as I sit and try to digest all that is going on, but I
have no idea what to make of it. My day began in the early morning hours and by
the time all of these tragic events take place,
I feel as if I have been awake not since 6:15 a.m., but for days.
The day is
coming to its close. My clock reads 12:15 a.m. and the news is still on in the
background regurgitating the tragic, horrific, mind-boggling news. All I can do
is account for the day's events, but I cannot assess them. Maybe it is because
my mind has been saturated time and time again throughout the never-ending day
with thoughts about these events. But I have a feeling I just do not have the
energy to make sense out of this mass confusion.
Tomorrow a new day will begin. The sun will rise; classes will resume. Will it
be normal or will we awake to more tragedy? Whatever the answer, I suppose only
time will tell.
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People wait for the shock to settle
Frank J. Flemming
Pittsburgh Standard
September 11, 2001. It won’t sink in for days. When things change this
quickly, it will take a good amount of time for the mind to catch up. But, when
the dust settles, our world will be forever changed.
Our first priority is to recover. There are
thousands injured, and it is up to everyone to do their part, to donate blood,
money, or whatever is needed. We need to restore as much normalcy as we can as
quickly as possible. Our enemies are gloating at the disarray they caused, so
we to show strength by simply getting back to our business unhindered. But,
make no mistake: it will not be business as usual. Not now.
Once shock subsides, anger is sure to replace
it. It’s not an emotion well suited for decision-making, but it is unavoidable
at this time. Efforts to submerge it will be futile, but it can be directed.
I’ve already heard plenty of people decrying
the abilities of our intelligence community, how they should have seen this
coming. Intelligence probably does need improving, but this should in no way be
the main focus. No matter how good we make our intelligence, we can’t always
prevent something like this. The only way is to discourage future acts of
terror.
It seems hard to reason with people who would
do something like this. They poke a tiger with a sharp stick and somehow expect
some good to come of it. But, our actions can put this in simple unmistakable
terms. Our response to this must convince all those who witness it that acts of
terror will do nothing but herald the perpetrators destruction. To simply
apprehend and arrest those involved is not enough at this point. Those who
hijacked the planes were not the only terrorists who committed suicide with
today’s actions.
It’s a terrible thing to call for vengeance,
but if our response falls even slightly short, we will only encourage more acts
like this. We must take the terror to the terrorists, hunting down all we can
find and punishing anyone who would harbor them to the point that a country
would fear even the possibility of terrorists resting in their borders.
It will be easy to overdo our response, to add
to the evil, but it is war. We will have to make decisions of life and death
that lie beyond the wisdom of man. We just have to pray to God to lead us in
our action to as good a solution as exists. It was a dark day today, and it
will be dark for some time to come.
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Students react to attacks
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Volume I: Issue II
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