Jacquelyn Lilyea
Students place flags along Wade Hampton Boulevard on either side of the main entrance to Bob Jones University in remembrance of the 2,977 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Jacquelyn Lilyea/STAFF
This week, Bob Jones University commemorates the events of Sept. 11, 2001, through its annual flag display on front campus. Memorials over the past 24 years have reminded Americans of the shocking terrorist attacks that have left resounding implications on our country today.
Now, as the vast majority of current students were born in a post-9/11 world, several shared their perspectives of the day and its legacy, along with Mrs. Linda Abrams of the history faculty.
Mrs. Abrams said 9/11 impacted her on several different levels, first because it was the first major attack on the United States during her lifetime.
“I think it’s analogous to the way my parents felt about Pearl Harbor, and so there are these major generational historical mileposts along the way,” she said. “And for me it’s the kind of thing everybody in my generation knows where they were when they heard. I can still remember where I was and what I was doing. It was like it was yesterday.”
The terrorist attack changed the American psyche, Mrs. Abrams said.
“We used to not feel as vulnerable within the United States,” she said.
Students from various years and disciplines also spoke about their second-hand experience.
“I think it’s a sobering date,” said Eric Probus, a senior studying music and church ministries. “I don’t remember it having too much of an impact on my life until five or six years ago, when I was watching some news broadcasts from the event. That’s when I really understood the impact it had on other people.”
“I don’t think I will totally understand it in the same way as the people who lived through the shock,” he said.
These college students are some of the first adults to have grown up without remembering the event. Some of them ha
ve visited the memorials in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C, but most of their understanding has come through their high school history textbooks or family stories.
Jessie Spindler, a junior elementary education major, said that separation of time and the nihilistic humor Gen Z tends to possess can lead to levity on how the generation approaches the subject as a whole, but “I think a lot of us conceptually understand there is a gravity about 9/11.”
Lincoln Buchanan, a sophomore business administration major, commented on the historical weight of 9/11.
“For our generation it serves as a reminder that no matter what political party you stand with, you all stand with one country,” he said. “And when that country is put into jeopardy, that should unite everybody. That should draw everyone together.”
September 11, 2001, another turning point in this American experiment. One that displayed the nobility of the American Everyman that now carries on to a new generation.
