Xenophon Strategies

September 11 Remembrances: East Lansing, MI

Bob Brady

Editors Note: As our nation commemorates the 10^th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on The World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, our staff will share their memories of that fateful day.  Whether they were in New York, near the Pentagon, at an aviation conference in Seattle, conducting business in London or sitting in high school classes around the country, each of us took time to reflect on the moments of that day which changed the way we live in the United States.

We didn’t have rowing practice at 5 am that morning. I was able to sleep in before my first class at 10 am, and woke up expecting a relaxing day of classes, and an afternoon on the water. But as I woke and began to get ready, there was an unnatural quietness in my dorm at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

I soon got word that something happened in New York City and my dorm mates and I rushed to turn on the TV. The first sight to hit my eyes was smoke coming out of the World Trade Center. None of us knew what to think. Early reports were that an airplane crashed into the North Tower.  We huddled around the TV in awe until I had to leave for class.

None of us knew what this meant.

As I walked to class, the few people that were out were talking about what they had seen. Sidewalks were mostly empty, as was my first class. When I arrived, word was finally established that the towers were hit by two aircraft and there was an attack on the United States.

Classes around campus began to get canceled. For students that didn’t get the message, professors explained the tragedy that was taking place. However, our practice was not canceled.

Few people I knew had ties to New York, including myself. But when my fellow teammates and I showed up to practice at our boathouse that afternoon, we each saw someone who did. Our head coach stood tall, but everyone could tell he was hurting with grief. 

Our coach was younger than I am now, but he pulled the team together and sat us down, and began talking about growing up in Rochester, NY, where many of the family and friends he knew had moved to New York City. He didn’t know if they were dead or alive, hurt or safe.

Not knowing about the well being of his loved ones and that he was powerless to do anything, brought our coach to tears. At that moment, all of us felt the emotion of our coach and realized that this day would have a lasting impact on the entire country.

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