Attendees at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Glen Oaks Community College in Centreville Friday observe a moment of silence for the victims of the attacks.
St. Joseph County Sheriff Chad Spence speaks during a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at Glen Oaks Community College on Friday, the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
CENTREVILLE — Twenty-five years to the day of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Glen Oaks Community College paid tribute Friday to the lives lost and the first responders who were on the ground when the attacks occurred during a ceremony at the college.
Held at the flagpoles near the front entrance of campus, the ceremony was attended by students, faculty and staff of the college, as well as deputies and administration from the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office and members of the local community. The ceremony was put on by the college in partnership with the St. Joseph County United Way.
GOCC President Dr. Bryan Newton started the ceremony, saying that moments of tragedy remind people of the importance of community and the need to depend on one another.
“Twenty-five years ago today, Americans experienced one of those moments on a scale almost impossible to comprehend,” GOCC President Dr. Bryan Newton said. “On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, people began their days much as we began our day. They went to work, they boarded airplanes, they dropped children off at school, they said goodbye to husbands and wives, parents and children, friends and co-workers. None of them could have imagined how profoundly the world would change before that morning was over.”
Newton said the attacks “changed America” and changed people’s understanding of security, travel, foreign policy, and their “sense of security.” Consequences of those changes, he added, have been felt for “decades.”
“Many of us can still remember exactly where we were when we heard that the first plane had struck the tower. We remember the television images, we remember the confusion, we remember watching events unfold and slowly realizing that what we were witnessing would become one of those defining moments of our lifetime,” Newton said.
Being in education, Newton then noted one of the biggest realities is that younger people in this country were born after the attacks, and didn’t witness them firsthand. For them, he said, 9/11 was history and learned about it secondhand from teachers, family, documentaries, and people who were there or witnessed it that day. That’s why, Newton said, ceremonies like Friday’s were important, and that those who remember the attacks have a “responsibility” to tell about what happened.
Newton also noted the heroics of first responders on that day, hundreds of which died on 9/11 and many others still carry what he called the “physical and emotional consequences of that service” for years to come.
“While thousands of people were desperately trying to escape the World Trade Center, firefighters, police officers, emergency medical personnel and first responders were moving in the opposite direction,” Newton said. “They climbed stairwells carrying heavy equipment while frightened people streamed past them in the other direction. They did so, knowing that their job was to help another person, to save another life even at tremendous risk to their own.”
Newton said the service of first responders didn’t end on 9/11, and it continues today, thanking local law enforcement in attendance and saluting veterans in attendance. He concluded his remarks by saying remembrance is about more than looking back, it’s about what they carry forward.
“May we continue to support those who serve our communities and our country today,” Newton said.
St. Joseph County United Way Director Kelly Hostetler then spoke briefly, saying those in attendance were there to remember “something that even 25 years later is still hard to believe ever happened in the United States.” She said 9/11, in addition to being about the families who lost their loved ones, was also a story of those who ran into danger that day.
“Firefighters, police officers, paramedics, emergency workers, they put their own lives at risk to help people they didn’t even know. Many made the ultimate sacrifice,” Hostetler said.
She also said students and younger people are “inheriting” the history of 9/11 today, and hoped that when the story of 9/11 is told to them, to tell about “how people responded.”
“How neighbors helped neighbors, how people lined up to give blood, and how American flags appeared everywhere. That’s the spirit we must never lose: the spirit of helping people. Neighbors helping neighbors, a community standing together by choosing kindness, by serving, by helping someone who needs us,” Hostetler said. “Twenty-five years have passed, and many things have changed. But one thing has not: we will never, never forget.”
St. Joseph County Sheriff Chad Spence was the keynote speaker for the ceremony. He said he was a sergeant working on the Road Patrol at the time of the attacks, and that while he felt anger at the attacks, he also felt an “elevated sense of what I was doing that day.”
“I was a sergeant working the road right here in St. Joseph County. We were hundreds of miles away, but suddenly the uniform I was wearing felt different,” Spence said. “None of us knew what was coming next, but I knew where I was supposed to be: working the road alongside the men and women I worked with, taking care of the community. That day reminded me what it truly means to serve.”
Spence said when he thought about those first responders who helped during the attacks, he was reminded of the mantra of “service above self.”
In the days following the attacks, Spence said people came together after the attacks to help out their neighbors and pray for the victims and the country.
“People turned to God, churches filled, Americans stood together. In St. Joseph County, faith in God is still a strong part of our community; I’ve seen our churches and our people step up during difficult times because somebody needed help,” Spence said.
“Today, we hear a lot about what divides us, politics, opinions, different backgrounds and beliefs. But Sept. 11 showed us something different. In the days that followed, it showed something more important: we needed each other. We should not need another tragedy to bring us together. We should not need another Sept. 11 to remember how we treated each other in the days that followed.”
Spence closed his remarks by saying the best way to honor the victims who died and the first responders who gave their lives is by living how we live every day.
“We gather on days like today to remember, and we should. The best way to honor those who served, sacrificed and gave their lives is not only to remember them once a year, it’s by how we live our lives every day,” Spence said. “Do not take your freedom for granted. Do not take this country for granted. Do not take the people around you for granted. Serve others, help your neighbor, have faith, take care of each other. Remembrance is important, but how we live after we remember matters too.”
The ceremony featured music from a bagpipe player, the singing of “America The Beautiful” by Malashia Cain, and a moment of silence for the victims of the attacks.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
