Pepperdine University will hold a day-long ceremony commemorating those lost in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and honoring the heroes of that fateful day. Locals reflect on the attacks nearly 10 years later.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that changed the course of recent American history. Communities across the country will gather to reflect on the implications of that fateful day. In Malibu, Pepperdine University will hold a day-long ceremony commemorating the event, with 2,977 U.S. flags set up on the campus’ front lawn to honor each of the victims who died in the attacks.
Speaking at the Pepperdine event will be the widow of Pepperdine alumnus Tom Burnett, who was among the passengers who tried to thwart the terrorist high-jacking of United Airlines Flight 93, which ultimately crashed in a Pennsylvania field killing all aboard. Burnett’s widow, Deena Burnett Bailey, is now remarried and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Speaking to The Malibu Times last week, Bailey said the attacks had a lasting effect on her three daughters, 15-year-old twins Halley and Madison, and 13-year-old Anna Clare, who were left without a father after 9/11.
“They were 5 and 3 when the attacks happened. They don’t take relationships for granted,” Bailey said. “They value family relationships much more than the average teenager. They lost someone they loved and they have a very strong relationship as sisters.”
Bailey said the tragedy caused her to undergo personal changes as well.
“I’m a different person,” Bailey said. “I’m more calm and reasonable, and less emotional. To some degree, it has changed all of us. They are all positive changes and growing changes for me.”
Other locals with connections to 9/11 also remarked upon the trauma that lingered after the attacks. Malibu resident Lynda Marsolek told The Malibu Times last week her husband, whose company had an office in one of the World Trade Center towers that collapsed in the attacks, struggled after learning the company lost 200 employees.
“He had a bad while, not just a bad day but a bad while,” Marsolek said. “It was a hard time.”
Thomas Stipanowich, who has served as academic director for Pepperdine’s Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution since 2006, was working in his midtown Manhattan office on the day of the attacks. He spoke of the pall that hung over New York City after the two iconic skyscrapers collapsed.
“The mood, not only in my office but in the entire city, was affected dramatically for a whole year. New York was like a ghost town,” Stipanowich said. “I remember traveling to Germany the following week [after Sept. 11] and there were only three people on a jet going to Germany.”
Even those with no personal connection to the attacks recall 9/11 as a watershed event in recent American history. Caitlin Schoensiegel, a senior at Pepperdine, recalled the feeling of unity in the country after 9/11, and lamented the current divisiveness in national politics.
“I’m not sure that we’ve really learned our lesson,” Schoensiegel said. “We were so united afterwards. But as with everything, it becomes a memory.”
One major event that sets this year’s anniversary apart from the nine that preceded it is the death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks. President Barack Obama announced May 1 that U.S. forces had killed Bin Laden in a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
After the news was announced, Bailey told the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal she had “a mix of emotions” after hearing of Bin Laden’s death.
“I don’t necessarily want to be glad that someone is dead, but I certainly find a sense of peace and closure that I didn’t expect to find,” she told the paper.
Bailey is scheduled to speak at 4 p.m. for an hour-long memorial service that will also feature remarks by California Assemblywoman Julia Brownley and Pepperdine University President Andrew K. Benton. In addition, a reading of the victim’s names will take place at 11 a.m., and a viewing of the film, “United 93,” will take place at 1 p.m. More information on Sunday’s events can be found online at www.pepperdine.edu/911-heroes.
Dick Dornan contributed to this story.