Pay Tribute Where It's Due

BY SHANNON KELLY
Graphic Editor in Chief

Last night, as the Living and A&E sections were nearing their deadline, the staff members lingering in the newsroom began reflecting. The last minutes of Sept. 11 were ticking closer to Sept. 12, but before the seconds passed, we took a moment to remember.

“Where were you that morning?” one editor asked.

“I was getting ready for school and I heard the T.V,” answered her assistant.

“I still remember every single thing about where I was,” our advisor added.

I was driving to school when I heard a confused radio host interrupt a broadcast to say, “A plane just crashed in to the World Trade Center. I remember thinking, “that’s a pretty distasteful attempt at a joke.”

But his report was no joke. It was a tragic reality.

Our newsroom commemoration was brief, but respectful and real.

Today I read a letter to the editor in USA Today. “Coverage of 9/11 anniversary needless,” it read. “The media have an obsession with 9/11… we don’t need to be reminded of it with mindless documentaries or special news reports.”

I couldn’t disagree more.

Memorializing the 2001 assault on our country is not about remembering the vicious, inhuman people who flew planes into our buildings. It’s about paying tribute to the Americans who perished with the towers and to those who risked their lives to save others.

Every year, the anniversary should be observed as another day to honor our country and its people.

The Graphic not only commemorated the day privately Tuesday night, but it will publicly pay tribute on Thursday (probably on the front page).

It’s respectful, it’s right; it’s what we owe our country, our community, our classmates and one of our own — Pepperdine alumnus and Flight 93 passenger, Thomas Burnett.