Editor’s note: In remembrance of that terrible day 10 years ago, when terrorists attacked the United States and killed nearly 3,000 people, we’ve decided to reprint the thoughts and feelings that poured out from community members and leaders in the weeks following Sept. 11, 2001.
By Arnold G. York / Publisher
Published: Wednesday, September 19, 2001
I sat all weekend trying to write a column about what happened in New York and Washington, D.C. I couldn’t do it. It’s not that I didn’t know what to say. I simply had too much to say and it’s all going in opposite directions. One moment I would send missiles flying to obliterate the Arab world and the next I would try to negotiate a political solution. In other words, like most of you, I’m completely unsure and harboring very contradictory feelings, with a lot of anger and emotional intensity.
It’s hard to think, or to sleep or to concentrate on anything else. So I decided to wait a week to try and let the ambiguities settle down, and, instead, run some things done by other writers e-mailed to me by friends.
First is a column written by Leonard Pitts Jr. in the Miami Herald the day after the attacks. It is a profoundly elegant statement of who we are as a people and what America stands for. The second is a previously aired editorial from a radio broadcast by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator, for which all Americans should be indebted. In times of trial it’s good to hear from your friends. Lastly, is a personal account written by Jerry Derloshon, director of Public Relations and News at Pepperdine University, about one of their graduates who died in the Pittsburgh crash. All three letters touched me, and I’m sure they will do the same to you.