he terrorist attacks in New York
City and Washington, D.C.
shocked the Siena Heights community along with the entire
nation. September 11 was a
spectacular late-summer day in
Adrian, but the mood was somber
as students, faculty and staff
gathered silently to watch non-stop news
coverage on televisions in Sage Union and
Ledwidge Hall. Moments of silent remembrance were observed at noon that day in
Sage, Ledwidge and Benincasa Dining Hall,
the first of many community gatherings in
the days and weeks that followed. Throughout the semester, the campus community and
the Adrian Dominican Sisters came together
to pray, reflect, study and try to make sense
of senseless events. To our knowledge, no
Siena Heights alumni lost their lives on
9/11. For this we are grateful. Our hearts go
out to those alumni, students, faculty and
friends who grieve the loss of family members and others dear to them. On these pages
of Reflections, we share the responses to the
tragedy from many members of the SHU
By Carl Morton ‘71
t was the second day of New York fashion
week. The city almost reverberated from
all the shows and I was looking forward
to seeing my friend’s show that evening.
I live 40 blocks north of the World Trade
Center and had viewed it as the center point
of my downtown skyscape.
while they were still under construction, We
all memorized the numbers: how 50,000
would work there, how 50,000 would visit
each day, and how the telephone cables
were long enough to stretch around the
world. Now I watched the titans which I had
thought invincible crumble.
I watched tower one take a sucker punch
from one plane and stood frozen in time as
the next plane took a left hook into tower
two. I stood in disbelief as the towers fell
straight into the ground.
Smoke permeated the air, which had been
crystal clear, and I knew this city that I
call home was now a giant crematorium; a
steady stream of ambulances and cars traveled north