Student reminisces on American icon

I can remember walking past there hundreds of times. Times that don't really matter. I'd walk past and marvel at how tall the World Trade Center was. I remember walking through other places, like New York's Greenwich Village, SoHo. or somewhere in midtown. Knowing exactly where I was because I could see the twin towers and know how far away I was from them. When I was a child, my dad would drive past and we'd try, but we couldn't even see the top floor. As an intern, working a few minutes away from the World Trade Center at an economics firm, I knew I had reached home when the announcer declared, "World Trade Center." It was the nexus of the subway system, where millions of people passed through Manhattan each day, where the PATH (Port Authority) trains from New Jersey brought travelers from other states into the Empire state, where hundreds of shops were located and countless else.

And now it is gone. An American institution is destroyed. The faces I saw there, innocent and hopeful, are the same faces I see at Purdue. Imagine waking up and having Purdue University destroyed. Or even Indianapolis destroyed. This is what I see, not as some fantasy, but as something that has happened that cannot be changed.

Last year, I walked past the World Trade Center and saw it protected behind rows and rows of police in riot gear, apparently in response to some alleged threat. At the time I thought it was ridiculous. "What is this, some police state?" I thought. Little did I know at the time how ineffective even the best efforts of our police could be. Everything that I have thought could be invulnerable or beyond assault, has been violated.

Roger J. D'Souza

Senior, School of Management

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