Event to remember Sept. 11 anniversary

Wed, August 30, 2006 |

The Valparaiso University Conversations Project will begin its annual programming with a special event on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“A 9/11 Commemoration: Remembering the Day, Looking Ahead,” will begin at 7 p.m. in the Christopher Center Community Room and is free and open to the public.

Audience members will be invited to share their recollections of that day and their reflections on its significance five years later. A panel will then address questions including whether the Al Qaeda attacks on Sept. 11 were a formative experience for a generation of Americans, what the U.S. response to the attacks says about the nation, and the long-term significance of the attacks on American culture and global politics.

Panelists are Mark Evans, a boatswain mate in the Coast Guard who will discuss how Sept. 11 changed the way the U.S. government thinks about national security; Jim Nuechterlein, a senior fellow at the Institute on Religion and Public Life who will discuss his experience as a resident of New York City when the attacks occurred; and Maria Luisa Garcia-Verduto, a Spanish professor at Purdue University Calumet who will discuss her decision to become a U.S. citizen after Sept. 11. Bruce Berner, Seegers professor of law, will moderate the discussion.

Also during the event, Valparaiso alumnus Daniel Cobbler will read Charles Martin’s poem “After 9/11.”

The goals of the Conversations Project are to promote non-partisan and non-adversarial political discussion, promote mutual understanding and political reconciliation through community conversations and to forge connections between the University and wider Valparaiso community. The program is supported by the Valparaiso Project on Civic Reflection.

For more information about the Conversations Project, contact Jeremy Telman, assistant professor of law, at (219) 465-7811 or Jeremy.Telman@valpo.edu.

The next Conversations Project event, “Do the Parties Represent You? Democrat, Republican or ….?” will be held in early November.