THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
CAMPUS
PAGE 3
People gather Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil in front of the Campanile to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. Elizabeth Berghout, associate professor of music, played the carillon during the ceremony.
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
From left, Jessica Frank and Samantha Houglund, juniors from Denver, participate in the candlelight vigil in front of the Campanile commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Sept. 11 Sunday evening. Mayor Aron Cromwell and student body president Libby Johnson spoke about the importance of community at the event.
MARY EDWARDS medwards@kansan.com
Students and families came together last night for a candlelight memorial service on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Candlelights and a carillon musical performance presented by associate professor Elizabeth Berghout flooded the hill behind Spencer Research Library following speeches from leaders in the University and Lawrence communities.
"The service provided us with experiences touching multiple senses — light, music, words, our beautiful campus and the bringing together of community," senior vice provost Sarah Rosen said. "Each piece is an integral part of a community experience."
Student body president, Libby
Johnson, who was in seventh grade when the World Trade Centers were hit, spoke about how each generation has a defining moment and how people join together to support the entire community.
Johnson though students should reflect on 9/11 as both an individual and as a community.
"KU students should remember what 9/11 means to them, but students should also remember what it means to be a citizen of America, and a citizen of the world," she said. "The remembrance is meant to be adaptive to each student allowing them to remember how they want to, while still being with the community."
Mayor Aron Cromwell also emphasized the importance of coming together as a community. Cromwell mentioned that tragedy can either divide or bring together
a community, and that the 9/11 attacks brought more patriotism than he's seen in his lifetime.
Rosen's speech recalled stories of survivors of the 9/11 attacks and focused on accepting diversity in our KU community.
"We must continually work to be a community and to better our community, and to embrace the diversity of our student body and the cultures that are brought together to make the KU community what it is," Rosen said.
Once the speeches concluded, candles were illuminated one by one, lit first by each of the speakers. Attendees listened silently, while the bells in the Campanile rang across campus.
Katie, Fankhauser, a junior from Topeka, attended the memorial service because she thinks it's important to remember the events
of 9/11.
"Students should never forget that 9/11 happened in the first place," she said. "We also should never forget the impacts it had and continues to have on those around us and how we joined together as a community."
Edited by Laura Nightengale
SEE THE KANSAN'S
9/11 TRIBUTE VIDEO
http://udkne.ws/oFv8SK
NATIONAL
Bush, Obama speak at ground zero memorial
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Determined never to forget but perhaps ready to move on, the nation gently handed Sept. 11 over to history Sunday and etched its memory on a new generation. A stark memorial took its place where twin towers once stood, and the names of the lost resounded from children too young to remember terror from a decade ago.
In New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, across the United States and the world, people carried out rituals now as familiar as they are heartbreaking: American flags unfurled at the new World Trade
Center tower and the Eiffel Tower, and tears shed at the base of the Pentagon and a base in Iraq.
President Barack Obama quoted the Bible and spoke of finding strength in fear. George W. Bush, still new to the presidency that day, invoked the national sacrifice of the Civil War. Vice President Joe Biden said hope must grow from tragedy.
And Jessica Rhodes talked about her nice, Kathryn L. LaBorie, the lead flight attendant on the plane that hit the south tower. She remembered a radiant smile and infinite compassion, and suggested that now, 10 years on, it is time to turn a corner.
"Although she may not ever be found, she will never ever be lost to her family and her friends," Rhodes said after she read a segment of the list of the dead at ground zero.
It was the 10th time the nation has paused to remember a defining day. In doing so, it closed a decade that produced two wars, deep changes in national security, shifts in everyday life — and the death at American hands of the elusive terrorist who masterminded the attack.
The anniversary took place under heightened security. In New York and Washington especially, authorities were on alert.
CAMPUS COMMEMORATION
A sign with names of those killed during the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks stands next to 3,000 American flags on the front lawn of Stauffer-Flint Hall. Each flag represents a life lost during the terrorist attacks.
MAX MIKULECKY/KANSAN
LAWRENCE
City officials, skating enthusiasts work on park renovation plans
JOHN GARFIELD/KANSAN
While still a community favorite at Centennial Skate Park, the mini-ramp's surfacing has come unhinged over the years.
Construction on $125,000 project will begin next spring
JOHN GARFIELD
jogarfield@kansan.com
In the valley of Lawrence's Centennial Park, a shroud of trees obsures one of the city's most popular subcultures. Centennial Skate Park serves as a home away from home for skaters of all ages, with many more coming to observe the spectacle of local talent. At 13 years old, however, the park is older than some of the skaters and is starting to show its age.
"The ground of the skate park is horrible. There are just holes everywhere and if you land something, more than likely you are just going to stick and fall. It is not a good environment to learn stuff in," said Garrett Rathbone, a junior from McPherson. "The park is amazing to skate, it just sucks whenever
Lawrence Parks and Recreation secured $125,000 in bond-based funding through the city commission last month. The funding will be used to repair the deteriorating infrastructure and fault lines that run the length of the park in early 2012.
you roll around. You have to worry about falling just because you hit a crack."
Centennial Skate Park has undergone multiple renovations since its $160,000 construction in 1998. The park was resurfaced in 2009 for $30,000, and again under warranty in 2010 when the fault lines reappeared.
"There's holes everywhere and there's cracks everywhere, and it's very poorly fixed every time," said Luke Clark, a junior from Olathe.
"The ground before was basically just asphalt-ish rocks where if you tell it would just cheese-grate your whole body. That was before I moved here," Rathbone said. "Once I moved here it was like this rubbery substance that, in the summertime, when it gets above 90, you just can't roll through it - you stick into it."
Lawrence skateboarders have organized and are working with the city to make sure that this next renovation works, holding regular meetings at White Chocolate Skateboards at 933 Massachusetts Street. Mark Hecker, parks and maintenance superintendent, said
The current material covering the
flat bottom of the park has garnered complaints from the skateboarding community, although many skaters consider it an improvement over the original asphault.
"The problem on this is going to be scope," Hecker said. "We're going to find out really quick that $125,000 isn't gonna do everything that everybody wants to do. We won't get as much as everybody wants."
the city plans to work with a steering committee of 10 to 12 people involved with the skateboarding community to make sure that their needs are addressed.
Construction is currently in the planning phase and is scheduled to begin in Spring 2012, according to Hecker.
Edited by Laura Nightengale
The Lawrence Skaters Association meets Mondays at 6 p.m. at White Chocolate, and is open to the community to field suggestions for the park's renovation.