A Message From President Carothers

The First Anniversary of September 11


	At URI: Students and staff react to the news on September 11. Photo by Ray Clayton, Narragansett Times

	"Burning Towers" by Nathan Blaney
.	To the Towers Themselves They were never the favorites, Not the Carmen Miranda Chrysler Nor Rockefeller’s magic boxes Nor The Empire, which I think would have killed us all if she fell. They were the two young dumb guys, Beer drinking Downtown MBAs Swaggering across the skyline, Not too bright. Now that they are gone, They are like young men Lost at war, Not having had their life yet, Not having grown wise and softened with air and time. They are lost like Cannon fodder, Like farm boys throughout time Stunned into death, Not knowing what hit them And beloved By the weeping mothers left behind. This poem, displayed at the 9/11 exhibit at the New York Historical Society, was discovered on an anonymous scrap of paper cleaned up by the city, probably from Union Square.

A Message From
President Carothers

September 11, 2001, is a day that will live on in infamy and in memory. While the evil manifested that day resists our comprehension, what we remember is what we can understand: the complex mix of tragedy and heroism that played out in New York City, Washington, D.C., and in the blue skies over Pennsylvania. If we cannot understand the minds of those who assaulted America in the name of God, we can yet marvel and weep at the human response to the carnage they caused.

URI lost five of its alumni in that carnage, as well as several parents and other family members of current students. We honor those alumni we have lost by remembering them. They cannot tell us what happened on September 11, but many of their fellow alumni were witnesses to the aftermath. They watched the tragedy unfold; they talked to the survivors; they comforted the children; they put their arms around the mourning families; they cleaned up the rubble; and they counted the dead.

None of them could have imagined as they completed their studies in Kingston that they would so find themselves on September 11, 2001, and the days thereafter. And yet they did, and the experience changed their lives forever.

Nathan Blaney was with his students at the Village Community School in Manhattan. John Murney was a cameraman with ABC News. Kim Queren became a volunteer with the Red Cross and theSalvation Army. As Captain of the Port and Commander of Coast Guard activities in New York, Rear Admiral Richard Bennis marshaled the forces that evacuated over 800,000 people from lower Manhattan by water and then led the port security and recovery efforts in the months that followed. JosephSeymour took over the reins of the New York Port Authority after his predecessor and friend, Neil Levin, died in the towers. Katherine Powers dealt with the appearance of anthrax in the NBCNewsroom where she is associate news director. Paul Sledzik went to Pennsylvania to identify the remains from the crash site of United Flight 93. Jennifer Sherwood brought music, dance, art, and theater to the schools in New York City whose children were most impacted.

University faculty and staff were also involved. Jim Campbell, director of URI’s Counseling Center, repeatedly drove to New York over many weeks to provide crisis counseling. And Professor Mohammed Sharif took on the daunting challenge of explaining the Islamic faith and culture to frightened and angry audiences around New England.

Each of these individuals talks today about his or her new respect for the American people, about the courage of the extraordinary, ordinary people who make up this nation, and about the compassion and decency they saw wherever they looked.

We thought you should hear those stories.

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