The Online Reflector

“I was just waking up when I turned on the news,” said Lawrence Davis, a volunteer with the 9/11 Remembrance Blood Drive. “At the time I was an Army tanker, stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. As soon as the news broke, we were stopwatched, which means that no matter where you are or what you’re doing–you stop it and get to the base now. Tanks were lined up at the front gate of the base, cars were stopped on the highway of people trying to get to base. While the rest of the country, the civilians, were watching the news trying to make sense of it, everyone–the soldiers, wives, the children–at the base was waiting to learn where we were going. We knew we were going overseas. The only question was where.”

The 9/11 Remembrance Blood Drive was one of four events the university coordinated in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed over 3,000 people.

“We were in class when they told us to turn on the TVs,” said freshman nursing major Kirsten Cox. “We watched the second tower fall. And after that, my grandpa, who’s a war vet, came to pick me up.”

Freshman athletic training major Ashlee Erlandson echoed a similar memory.

“We were just going to class. I remember the TV being on, and a lot of the parents were picking up their kids,” Erlandson said.

The same evening as the blood drive, th

e Institute for the Study of War and Diplomacy coordinated a panel discussion with UIndy’s History and Political Science department on “The Global Impact of 9/11.”

Associate Professors of History and Political Science Douglas Woodwell and Milind Thakar were joined by IUPUI Professor John McCormick for the event.

The topics of terrorism and security were covered by Woodwell, the U.S. perception around the world and the impact of the War on Terror in the developing world were covered by Thakar and the European perception of the war and the terrorist attacks throughout Europe were covered by McCormick.

“I was just waking up when my neighbor came to tell me about the first tower,” Woodwell said. “At the time, I was a grad student at Yale. So the fact that it was right there was stunning. There’s actually a place called East Rock not too far from there, where you can see east Manhattan. And that day, I went there with my girlfriend. I just couldn’t believe what I was looking at in Manhattan.”

Thakar also recalled his memories of the day.

“My brother-in-law, who lives in New York, called me when I was reading the paper that morning,” Thakar said. “When I came to America 18 years ago, I landed in New York City and considered that my home base. I was angry with the attacks and saddened by all the lives lost.”

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, the 10-year anniversary, students met at the bell tower for an interfaith prayer service followed by a service event, during which a portion of the crowd packed food bags while the rest participated in a community art project.

At 7 p.m. there was a remembrance service on Smith Mall. Students, community members and faculty joined for the brief service. Members of interfaith committee shared words of comfort, hope and peace, while University Chaplain Lang Brownlee remembered the entire student body filling the atrium 10 years earlier on that day for a prayer service.

The service ended with a candlelight vigil.

The events marking the anniversary of 9/11 were a time for students, faculty and community members to reflect but, as those who spoke at the remembrance service noted, the weekend was also a time to look to hope and healing in the aftermath of sorrow.