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911cp

The day after the towers fell, this paper carried the following plea: “Please take advantage — and take care — of your university’s greatest resource: each other. When the rubble has been cleared and the history books closed on this day, the legacy of September 11, 2001 will rest heavily on whether or not you do.”

In the days, months and years that followed, the University — and the country — came together first in mourning and then in healing. Our reactions to the attacks combined the personal with the collective — we all remember where we were when we heard the news, and it was 9/11 more than any other event that awoke the national consciousness of our generation. We experienced one of those rare moments in which our differences disappeared, and we were united in our commonalities.

We are now a decade removed from the attacks. The rubble has been cleared, and the history books are being written.

In another 10 years, students at Penn will have no firsthand memory of that day, no recollection of the sorrow and solidarity that followed.

In many ways, it is for this next generation that we pause for remembrance on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. We must leave them a record that conveys the momentousness of the event and imparts the lessons we’ve learned.

But in other ways, this reflection is not for the next generation at all. It is for us — we who witnessed the attacks and are still struggling to make sense of them. It is to help us cope with the trauma. It is to remind ourselves of the unity we felt in the aftermath. It is to take advantage of our University’s greatest resource. It is to take care of each other.

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