Tuesday, September 11, 2001

On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, I was teaching in Luther College’s Main 211.

This is what the classroom looks like today.

Except for the raised TV monitor and computer, it looks the same as it did twenty one years ago.

In 2001, Main 211 had a TV but on that day it did not work.

Decorah, Iowa (All times are Central Standard)

I got to my office about 6 AM to prepare for an 8 AM class. I was teaching a new course, Struggles for Freedom, that compared freedom movements in three countries, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and America.

I completed my work in Koren Hall about 7:30 and strolled the 200 yards to Main and my classroom. The sun was to my back, on a clear day in the American midwest.

Always restless before class, I wanted to check whether there were enough chairs for the 16 of us.

Also on my mind was where to put the portable lectern to signal to students where I would be sitting. I decided to put it at the end of the table facing the door.

Because I did not plan to use the TV, I did not check whether it was working.

Tuesday, September 11 would be our 5th class meeting.

We started with Northern Ireland and that day’s topic was the role of terrorism in the conflict between Protestant and Catholic Communities.

It was a normal Tuesday morning on the Luther College campus in Decorah, Iowa.

Boston & New York (Times are Central Standard)

At 6:59 AM, American Airlines Flight 11 with 92 people took off from Boston International Airport destined for Los Angeles.

As I was preparing for my day’s work:

Captain John Ogonowski and First Officer Thomas McGuiness Jr. were going through their pre-flight routines.

Chief Flight Attendant Karen Martin was overseeing the boarding of passengers along with Flight Attendants Barbara Arestegui, Jeffrey Collman, Sara Low, Kathleen Nicosia, Betty Ann Ong, Jean Roger, Dianne Snyder, and Amy Sweeney.

Among the 81 passengers finding their seats were Mohamed Atta, Abdulaziz al-Omari, Wail al-Shehri, Waleed al-Shehri, and Stam al-Sugami.

About the time I was walking from my office to my classroom:

Flight Attendant Betty Ann Ong notified (7:19 AM) the American Airlines ground crew that Flight 11 had been hijacked. Ong provided information for 25 minutes.

As students began filtering into Main 211, at 7:46 AM

Mohamed Atta guided America Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Decorah

As students were settling into their seats, one mentioned he had heard on the news that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Before I asked my first question about that day’s Northern Ireland reading, at 8:03 AM:

Marwan al-Shehri steered United Flight into the South Tower.

In 2001, no one had a phone or personal computer to see news in real time.

Unknowing, we continued class.

Just as Hani Hanjur maneuvered American Airlines 175 into the Pentagon, at 8:37 AM, a student poked her head into our classroom and told us another plane had hit the World Trade Center.

We all looked at her, then at each other. I went to the TV and discovered it was not working.

I then told the class to go and find a find TV. Most scattered but a few stuck around to chat. I said there was a TV in the Administrative Assistant’s Office in Koren.

We walked briskly across campus and climbed the three flights to Chelle Meyer’s office.

We joined Chelle and a couple of student around her little desk TV, at 8:59 AM, and watched in real time the collapse of the World Trade Center’s South Tower.

Seven minutes later the passengers of of United Flight 93 forced Ziad Jarrah to ditch his guided missile into a Pennsylvania field well-short of the targeted US Capital or White House.

At 9:28 AM, two minutes before my Freedom Struggles’ class would have ended, the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

2712 killed and 6000 injured, on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Why the most memorable day?

9/11 would live in my memory regardless of what I had been doing on that day. Just as November 22, 1963 or those terrible 1968 dates, April 4 and June 6 live on.

But politics, religion, and terrorism — all came together on that Tuesday. Just as they had on April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City.

I needed to know more about what was going on in the world that would produce these horrors.

In the summer of 2002, I developed a new course, Terrorism and Democracy.

I had never studied terrorism in graduate school.

I thought it would be a one-off.

I taught Terrorism and Democracy every year until I retired, in 2018.