9/11 Feature: Columbia, five years after Sept. 11
Published Sept. 12, 2006
Five years ago, the world shuddered as two planes flew into the World Trade Center. Lives were taken and families were shattered as the echoes of chaos and destruction rippled across the country. The event has since spawned war, prejudice and conspiracy theories, and it remains one of the darkest days in U.S. history.
"When [the tower] hit the ground, the entire island of Manhattan shook," sophomore Max Hyman, a New York native, said. "The entire downtown area was filled with smoke."
Hyman was in his high school in the Bronx when he heard about the attack. His father worked just a block and a half away from the World Trade Center.
"My dad got home, and he was covered in ash," Hyman said. "And to this day, he's still horrified of it."
Former Columbia firefighter John Purves also remembers the day: "When I was at the station, all we knew was there was an accident."
Purves said they were told to go into lockdown and "get ready for anything." Throughout the lockdown time, he said, he kept thinking that the New York City firefighters shouldn't be going into the towers.
"It was just unthinkable what they did," he said.
In the course of a couple of hours, almost 3,000 people lost their lives.
The entire national population, no matter where they were or what they were doing, was affected by the events of Sept. 11.
But as time has passed, people have attempted to push the event from memory and continue with their everyday lives.
During the past five years, an overwhelming amount of political and media attention has been given to the attacks. With fallout including two full-scale wars, countless news pieces and a few films, the attack has become an important part of American life.
For Channig Kennedy, general manager of Maude Vintage, the press coverage has lessened some of the meaning.
"Everyone's heard so much about it. It's hard to tell what it really felt like," Kennedy said. "It was a major tragedy, and it really got disrespected."
Some businesses in downtown Columbia, including The Blue Note, did not do anything special to commemorate the event. Instead, the shops adopted the popular mentality that it's better just to move on with life.
"As far as day-to-day operations are concerned, nothing has been planned, nothing changed," Blue Note general manager Dylan McCord said.
Ragtag Cinemacafé and Starbucks both had plans to commemorate the event.
"Locally, we're going to be doing random acts of kindness," said Starbucks shift manager Justin Scott. "It's to let the community know that we're acknowledging it."
Ragtag will be playing movies dealing with both Sept. 11 and the war in Iraq.
"The films are all kind of intertwined," said general manager of the theater Sarah Bantz. "Rather than directly talking about 9/11, we're indirectly talking about it."
In addition, the MU College Republicans also memorialized the anniversary by putting 2,977 flags on Carnahan Quadrangle — one for each victim of the attacks.
"No one [else is] doing anything," President of the College Republicans Tyson Mutrux said. "If we forget about it and quit fighting the war on terror, it's just going to keep happening."
For those who experienced the event personally, feelings about this anniversary are different from those of the people who experienced it through media coverage.
"When an international story becomes a local story, it's tough to move on," sophomore Dan Oshinsky, a Washington, D.C.-area native, said. "Just because of the proximity, it was very different. Out here, I'm sure it was just as painful, just as scarring, but it was different."
When asked if he would be calling home on Monday, Oshinsky said, "I'll call home if the Redskins win...If Washington wins, no one will talk about (Sept. 11). If Washington loses, people will talk about 9/11 to take their minds off of the Redskins."