Class seeks inspiration at 9-11 site

Grad student Loyal Miles remembers the shock he felt when he watched the second plane hit one of the Twin Towers on his TV screen. He knew he was watching history unfold but he recalls feeling there was no way to know in that moment what the long-term effects of Sept. 11, 2001 would be.\n"I had to balance my own personal shock of seeing something so horrible on TV with knowing it was going to have a historic effect for years to come," Miles said. "There was really no way to say in that moment what it meant, but I knew it was going to mean something big."\nThese feelings have stuck with him ever since. Miles came to IU in 2000, and has been working to earn an MFA in creative writing. As a part of the MFA program, students like Miles get the chance to teach. After instructing several creative writing classes offered through the English Department, the Wichita, Kan., native had his own idea. \nHe learned through a friend that the Collins Living-Learning Center welcomes instructors who have created their own classes to apply to have their courses offered at the LLC. So he designed a course called, "Writing Historical Fiction," in which students would use the events of 9-11 to write their stories. \nHe said he wanted students to research all angles of Sept. 11 by reading both national and international perspectives on the terrorist attacks, and also learning about the issues concerning the redevelopment of Ground Zero. But he wanted their primary preparation for writing their stories to be a field trip to New York City so they could experience the aftermath of the events as best they could. \n"They need to be there, they need to see how big the space of ground zero is," Miles said. "They need to see the buildings and the city so they'll have a deeper understanding to start from when they are writing what the events were really like."\nThe Board of Educational Programming at the LLC approved his course last year, so Miles and his students flew to NYC where they spent the past weekend trying to piece together their own conceptions of 9-11 and its aftermath. They met with Lee Ielpi, the vice president of the 9-11 Widows' and Victims' Family Association, and with Anthony Gardener, the president and founder of the World Trade Center United Family Group. Both men lost loved ones that day. Miles' students learned from them what both the people trapped in the buildings experienced during the attacks and what firefighters did in their attempts to rescue them.\nMiles and his students also visited several museums that featured 9-11 exhibitions, and, Sunday morning, they walked through Ground Zero. It was not what many of them had expected.\n"More than anything, it was just a hole," freshman Jake Ruby said. "In New York, there's so much life and to have an absence of life six acres wide and six stories deep was really awkward. It didn't seem like something like that would be possible in New York City."\nJunior Chelsea Stroup also could hardly believe what she saw. She said there were so many buildings around the site that it was hard to imagine something so big fell without doing more damage. After visiting Ground Zero, Stroup said she felt self-conscious about discussing her reactions to the site in public. While the rest of the students were talking about the visit on the subway, the Kokomo, Ind., native sat in silence.\n"I was afraid to talk to people in our group about it because I didn't know if someone sitting next to me had family or friends who were in the towers," Stroup said.\nBut Stroup was most moved after she listened to Gardener speak. She said Gardener has had arguments with members of the New York Port Authority and various politicians including New York Sen. Hillary Clinton about the redevelopment plans for Ground Zero. She said Gardener is upset about Port Authority's plans to fill in the places where the towers stood, called the footprints, with a bus depot among other things. Stroup said she feels the footprints should be preserved, not commercialized. \n"A lot of times family members like to stand on the footprints because to them it's like standing over their families' grave," Stroup said. "The Port Authority is filling them in without consulting the family members."\nBoth Stroup and Ruby, who is from New Carlisle, Ind., said they feel the trip will help them write their final stories because they have had the chance to see and experience everyday life in New York. They said they have seen the result of the attacks and also how New Yorkers have continued to live their lives after the tragedy.\nMiles said he was pleased with the trip, and knows his students will have plenty of ideas for their stories. \n"I want my students to be charged up after having this opportunity to interact with history and fiction writing about such an important topic," Miles said. "They are beginning to make sense of Sept. 11 and Ground Zero."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.