11 reflections on 9/11: Bill Gray, IUSA president

Every recent generation in our country's history has identified with a tragic day. Our grandparents all remember exactly what they were doing when they heard about Pearl Harbor; our parents can all remember the fear and sadness that they felt when JFK was assassinated: Our generation will never forget Sept. 11, 2001.\nLike many students, I was woken up by my roommates on that tragic morning. Watching the events unfold on the big screen TV with my fraternity brothers, I was overcome with disbelief, shock and anger. How could this happen?\nBeing at IU made Sept. 11 more real to all of us. All of us knew someone who was personally touched by the events: be it a New Yorker living two doors down from you, a friend‚ parent that worked in the Pentagon, or someone with a friend on Flight 93. Because we were all here together, and not at our childhood homes, we all shared the grief together. In the days and weeks that followed, we all came together as a campus.\nThe terrorists, fueled by ignorance and hate, were able to bring the towers down, but failed to destroy our society. Every day that we go to class, and continue our search for knowledge, we do so not only in defiance to the terrorists, but also in support of all that is good in America. As students, we are their opposite, and their enemy, and they have failed to defeat us. When our graduation arrives, we take our place in American society and as people we are human evidence of exactly how strong the American people truly are.