Sept. 9, 2013
Taylor Eaton
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Sept. 11, 2001 marked a tragic day in American history as four planes were hijacked, killing 2,996 people and injuring 6,000. The planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and an open field near Shanksville, Pa.
The College Republicans at UCCS will continue what they started last year in remembrance of 9/11. The West Lawn will be covered with 2,996 white flags, every one carrying its own significance.
Recruiting director Nev Haynes, a fifth-year senior and political science major, invited the UCCS community to join him and his club in putting each flag into the ground Sept. 10 at 4 p.m.
Students do not have to sign up, only meet the club on the West Lawn, grab a flag and place it into the ground.
“We’re encouraging everyone to come help us place the flags. It’s open to the campus, to the students, to the faculty. Just come down,” Hayes said.
Haynes and the club requested to reserve the West Lawn from Sept.10-12, the last day of which the flags will be taken down at 7 a.m.
Hayes planned on talking to Campus Services about having a bell toll at 4 p.m. for every plane that crashed that day or having four bell tolls on the hour every hour.
The flags and bells are meant to not only remember the fallen but to bring UCCS together on a day that brings back memories of where students and faculty were the day they learned terrorism had struck on American soil.
“For this generation especially, I feel like 9/11 was the moment all of us lost our innocence,” Haynes said.
“We look back on that day and its one of the darkest days in our nation’s history and our [generation’s] history. It’s important for us every year to remember those who lost their lives. To remember their sacrifice. [Emergency personnel] went to work and did what Americans do.”