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Sept. 11,2001 PHOTO BY HARRY HAM8URG/KRT CAMPUS Smoke billows from the Pentagon after a hijacked plane crashed Into the building. PHOTO BY GEORGE BRIDGES/KRT CAMPUS Maj. Dan Pantaleo and another worker recover a Marine Corps flag from the fourth floor of the Pentagon. PHOTO BY GABRIEL TAIT/KRT CAMPUS Cranes are used to support the damaged area of the Pentagon so that workers can begin searching for victims. Anniversary CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A ceremony has been planned at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which marks what had been the worst act of terror ism on American soil. In Chicago, where the Sears Tower again became the nation’s tallest building after the 110-story trade center towers collapsed, resi dents will observe three minutes of silence before an interfaith prayer at Daley Plaza. In New York, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is scheduled to lead a long line of people read ing the victims’ names in al phabetical order. Others include Secretary of State Colin Powell, actor Robert De Niro and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. A ceremony at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed, is to begin at 9:30 a.m., and will in clude a moment of silence, the Pledge of Allegiance and musi cal selections by military bands. Thousands are expected to gather in the Pennsylvania field where the fourth hijacked plane crashed. The ceremony at 10:06 a.m.,.the time of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash, will in clude a moment of silence and a reading of the 40 victims’ names as bells sire tolled. Ceremonies nationwide are ' to rely on symbolism and his torical references. Barbara Minervino, who lost her husband, is not going to the city’s ceremony, but said keep ing speeches out of the an niversary remembrances was a good idea. “There are no words, really, that anyone can say, that would heal the heart, that would change the moment, so silence is probably best,” Minervino said. But Mary Beth Norton, a pro fessor of history at Cornell University, said: “Wordless cer emonies or repeating things written in the past strike me as a statement that we’re almost not up to commemorating an event of this magnitude properly.” President Bush will visit all three disaster sites Wednesday, and will travel from the Pentagon to Pennsylvania to New York’s Ground zero. Bush will address the nation Wednesday night from Ellis Island, with another symbol — the Statue of Liberty — as his backdrop. He hopes it will re mind “America again of our moral calling, our higher pur pose as the beacon of liberty and freedom for people around the world,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. Anniversary planning came as the Bush administration, on Tuesday, raised the terror alert for the first time to code orange, signaling a high danger of at tack. Officials said the alert was prompted by specific and credi ble threats to American em bassies overseas. “We are not recommending that events be canceled,” Attorney General John Ashcroft said. He said the gov ernment asks Americans to “mark the anniversary with heightened awareness of their environment and the activities occurring around them.” Chicago is one of many cities that plan a military flyover to mark the anniversary. Military helicopters will buzz Boise, Idaho; the Iowa National Guard will fly over Des Moines; and F 16 fighter jets will fly over Bismarck, N.D. Beam CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Sept. 11! How do you feel about that?” The joke was not appreciated, but the message was clear: 9/11 is over. But to some, such as Mary Vasilik, Sept, ll is not over. Vasilik started a national petition to the president and Congress for the cre ation of a national holiday on Sept. 11 to be called “Unification Day.” Joining Vasilik’s are close to 200,000 other signatures support ing the idea, and the list is growing every day. Apparently the White House’s pronouncement naming Sept. 11 as “Patriot Day” isn’t enough. While the designation isn’t considered a federal holiday, during which schools and government offices close, it is a day when flags across the country will fly at half-staff and countless vigils and observances will be held to honor those who were killed. Although no national holiday has been declared yet, the nation’s com mercial industries are already “re membering” all the way to the bank. TreeGivers, a company that plants trees for various occasions, begins its pitch with a somber plea to “re member them with a memorial tree,” followed by a convenient “We plant all states for $29.95!” It gets better. A Very Beary Forest is market ing special Sept. 11 teddy bears “cel ebrating America’s heroes,” by donning fire, police and solider uni forms for the lo, low price of $24! (marked down from $31). Is this how we honor those whose lives were stolen from them by terrorists — by planting a tree and snuggling with a teddy bear? How did we move from memorial . to profit? Those who support a federal hol iday on Sept. 11 are, in essence, wanting to honor America by do ing the very thing the 19 hijackers sought to accomplish on that hor rific day - shut America down. That sounds more like a celebration of terror than a solemn remembrance of tragedy. Where is the federal holiday for the bombing of Pearl Harbor? Where are the commemorative T shirts for the Oklahoma City bomb ing? Where are flags at half-staff for the sinking of the Titanic? Instead, we should honor those who lost their lives by going to work and going to school in one unified gesture of defiance, proclaiming that we will not be bullied back into a state of fear and timidity but that we will stand strong on the capitalistic principles that make America free. Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, Mr. Sept.ll him self, put it best when he told Andrew Kirtzman of NY1 News: “I don’t know what a one-year anniversary means. I don’t think that it means that I’m going to be any different the day after it. I suspect I’m not.” In John Irving’s novel, “The Cider House Rules”, the main char acter faces a choice that parallels this decision. “Where he would go was hardly a place of comparable ex citement, of comparable challenge, of comparable sadness, of compara- ac ble gloom; but where he would go was nice. Wouldn’t it simply seduce him? Wouldn’t anyone rather have nice?” America can hardly move to a state of more emotional turmoil, but it can be seduced into some thing nice—a nice little holiday to add to the list of days I don’t have to go to school. That is not how I want to re member. Beam is a second-year print journalism student. Mortiol Arts, To! Chi & More >10“otf Regular Fee ♦Limit one coupon per class. Offer expires 9/15/02. Fall classes include Oi Song, Tai Chi and Martial Arts For more information 695*2995 www.ChmeseCMltHreCenter.org Insurance CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 stantial rate increases [at USC],” he said. “I Know insur ance rates have been increas ing, but we have not seen it.” That doesn’t mean, howev er, it will not see rate increases in the future. “We may possibly see one in the financial year 2004—June this year,” McCoy said. “We’ll probably know more come spring semester.” McCoy agrees with most fi nancial and insurance indus try experts that the reinsur ance industry took the biggest hit. “It’s not just one company taking a hit, it’s several hun dred insurance companies, which took policies out with several hundred reinsurers.” he said. Ann Roberson, the spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Insurance, describes the rein surers’ predicaments. “It made such a tremen dous impact,” she said. “They could never have planned for it. They are bouncing back, however. We’re seeing that whole area come back pretty strong.” As for what comes next, no one really knows. “I’d just say we need prac tice,” McCoy says. “This is a new era; no one really knows what will happen. Those who claim to know, I’m suspicious of.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com ■ INS System CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 -a we do not have.” But WiUer said: “We are very com mitted to helping USC meet its obli gations and students to meet their obligations. We encourage interna tional students who have questions to contact our office.” “And we will do our best to help them understand the new regula tions,” she said. Wilier said USC is committed to complying with all federal regula tions and to helping international students maintain their legal status. 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