9/11 Memorial, soldiers march with flags outside of Regis Chapel //Frances Meng-Frecker
By: Rose Ferrie, Staff Reporter
On September 11, students, faculty, and community members gathered at the Regis Chapel to commemorate and memorialize the horrific events that occured 17 years ago in our country. Some of us students were very little when this tragedy happened, but the memory of this event is kept alive by our parents, professors, and other people who will never forget where they were on this day. One of the speakers at the memorial was Lt. Mike Tavalez of the Adams County Fire Department who shared his memories of that day. He recounts that he was working somewhere in Aurora just getting off a shift when he turned on the TV and saw devastating footage of the towers.
However, myself, along with many of my peers, have little to no memory of this day, I have only learned second hand through my parents, teachers, and newsreels what happened. I know that 19 men hijacked 4 planes and 2,977 people died because of the attack. It is easy to look at a tragedy like this and only see numbers.
The memorial event hosted on Regis’s campus reminds us of the emotion and raw pain experienced that day and years after. In this experience, I was able to reflect on my visit to the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York. It was a powerful experience I will never forget. The museum includes wreckage of buildings and first responder vehicles, newsreels playing all around you. They have pictures and names of all the men, women, and children who perished; this made them far more than a number, it was a painfully humanizing experience that made me tear up.
It is easy to let such a tragedy disappear from our everyday thoughts but, we will never forget these people that lost their lives on September 11, 2001. In the museum there is a quote, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” The service on campus was a powerful reminder of the loss of innocent lives, the sacrifices of the first responders, and the mourning that their friends and family face to this day.