A United Campus?

The world appears to be in disarray, in a matter of seconds the United States was turned upside down by the sudden attack by an unknown power.

The ramifications of this tragedy have echoed throughout the nation, hitting our area as hard as anywhere else.

I recently attended Chancellor Bardo’s “gathering” today at the Ramsey Center, and I have to ask the rest of the students, “Where were you?”. I understand that we are all busy, with obligations to studying, work as well as our own lives, however, in sitting in the forum I looked around and it was not what I saw that moved me, but rather what I did not see…More Students.

During the time I sat there, listening to one of the speakers talk about how our generation is seem as “lazy and without direction”, I began to wonder, Will we really be the generation to see World Peace, as the speaker suggested? We as the up and coming adults of the nation hold the future in our hands, we ARE the future of this country, and if we cannot take time out of our day to come and reflect, to listen and understand, to come together… what kind of world will we create?

Noone really ever wants to go to class, but i would have much rather have had to go today, then have the afternoon off today on account of the attack earlier this week, as well as our uncertain future.

I hope that those of you who did not attend the event today took some time out for your own reflections, but in that time I also hope you stopped to think about how the actions of that morning have impacted our lives in the future.

It is so sad that it takes the deaths of possibly 1000 people to make people suddenly patriotic. Pride and unity of hearts in our nation is something that should be a constant, not just a product of loss and fright.

For the hours that passed during the “attack”, note that the rest of the crime and evil in the country seemed to halt. FOr those few hours children were not shooting at classmates, people were not being pushed in front of trains, gang warfare was no longer an issue, for as we all sat horrified watching Manhattan in terror, a country of such internal crime and hate turned into a nation, a mass of people who bonded together. For that time we were all one.

Now in the aftermath, are we still? We as a campus need to stay as one, as a group of young adults, coming out into the world holding that pride and unity to eachother in our hearts.

To those of you who were not there this afternoon, you missed out. Stay passionate about this event, turn anger and rage into desire to help,desire to live life to the fullest and be not only a good person but also a good neighbor, a good citizen.

You take for granted so much in life, you go by and never appreciate that which you have until it is threatened. Go outside, smile at people that you have yet to meet, play on swingsets and tell those you love how you feel whenever you can. This event has hit us all, whether or not we knew anyone involved, or whether we were just grateful we didn’t..this hit home.

This is our world, soon to be handed over to our generation, lets make a hell of a mark on it!

I only hope those of you who did not make it today to the Ramsey Center, did not view this time off today as an excuse to lounge around the residence halls but as a time to think, to appreciate and to remember those who lost their lives and loved ones, their future has been taken away all too soon, ours has not..How will you make a difference?

~Lisa Angell