The Purdue Exponent


9/13/01	5 day quick link 9/12 \| 9/11 \| 9/10 \| 9/7 \| 9/6

Glee Club, Purdettes share patriotic music

Keith Thomas/Editor in Chief

TOUGH MORNING: Amy Murray, a freshman in the School of Liberal Arts, is consoled by Purduettes director Ly Tartell, as members of the Purdue Musical Organization practice outside due to Wednesday morning's bomb threat at Hovde Hall.

By Keith Thomas
Editor in Chief

Proving that the American spirit will not be dented by threats of bombs or attacks on buildings, the Purdue Musical Organization stirred some emotions on Wednesday morning.

Forced out of the Elliott Hall of Music due to Wednesday's bomb threat, members of the Purduettes and the Glee Club joined for their regularly scheduled rehearsal and shared with the campus an emotionally charged version of "God Bless America."

The sentiment was almost too much for some students to handle as members of PMO belted out the patriotic lyrics just beyond the yellow police tape surrounding their building.

For some students, the morning music session near the Math Building was a temporary healing tool. The bomb scare Wednesday, which consisted of evacuating Hovde Hall, Elliott Hall of Music and a portion of the Psychological Sciences Building, was magnified in light of Tuesday's horrific terrorist attacks against the United States.

"I started crying at the very beginning of the song because it made me think of how wonderful America is," said Amy Murray, a freshman in the School of Liberal Arts and member of the Purduettes. "I think it's wonderful; I think that whatever goals the terrorists had to dampen or destroy our spirits, it made our spirits even stronger.

"We'll all bond together and keep on going."

For the evacuated singing students from Wednesday morning, they may have found their bond.

"You can't let anybody take away the very thing that you love the most," said John Ranard, assistant director of Purdue Musical Organizations. "And music for these kids is exactly what it is."

Ranard looked on with a proud eye and Murray looked on with a wet eye; both doing so as the stirring rendition of "God Bless America" caused many a passing student to stop and to think.

Thinking is all Murray's been doing since the attacks that are believed to have killed thousands of Americans in New York and Washington, D.C.

"It's overwhelming just being a freshman and then with the American tragedies," Murray said. "It's emotionally difficult.

"I miss my family and I wish that I could have at least one hug, but I can't, so at least I've got my sisters in song."

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