monday, march 15, 2004
the university daily kansan
news
3A
Spanish students react to Madrid terrorist attacks
By Marc Ingber
mingber@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Last Thursday's terrorist attacks in Madrid have hit close to home for members of the University of Kansas' Spanish population.
Bombs exploded in several areas of the Madrid railroad line last Thursday, killing 200 people and injuring about 1,500 more.
The Spanish government is still looking into who was responsible for the attacks. One group under investigation is the Spanish terrorist group ETA, but the government is also looking into other terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.
"There is no mob mentality. You are not surrounded by a whole country that is enraged."
Vicente Gomis-Izquierdo GTA in the department of Spanish and Portuguese
Isabel Guilleumas is a graduate teaching assistant in the Portuguese and Spanish department from Salamanca, Spain.
attacks, every time she went home.
from salamander, spain
She has family and friends who live in Madrid, and said that she passed through the Atocha train station, the site of one of the
Guilleumas said she knew one person who was injured but not severely in the attack at Atocha.
She said she felt powerless because she couldn't do anything to help from over here.
"I've talked with my friends over there and it's quite upsetting." she said. "The few images I've seen have made me think a lot. I try to stay away from the images on purpose because I know if I watch them I'll get really angry."
She said it was the terrorists' goal to make people watching the news upset.
They are looking for you to be
disrupted," she said. "I don't want them to win, and doing that will make them win."
She said most of the people she knew who lived in Spain participated in the demonstrations that went on this weekend.
"I would have too, if I had been there," she said. "It's a little way of honoring whoever was killed."
Vicente Gomis-Izquierdo, Alicante, Spain, said he also had family who lived in Madrid but no one was hurt.
"They are doing OK, but it goes to show you are not safe anywhere," Gomis-Izquierdo, a GTA in the Spanish and Portuguese department, said. "That's got to have an impact on you."
He said there was a difference being a Spaniard here in the United States and in Spain right now.
"There is no mob mentality," he said. "You are not surrounded by a whole country that is enraged."
People in United States now share a bond with people in Spain, he said.
"They are calling it the Spanish September 11," he said. "Before it was a political thing between the Spanish and U.S. governments, but now it's a lot more personal."
He said Spain will work harder than it has for the past few years to increase security.
use security. Emma Fernandez, a GTA in
the Spanish and Portuguese department from Isla de Arosa, a small island off the northwestern coast of Spain, said she heard about the attacks by watching CNN Headline News.
"I was really in shock," she said.
said. She has a cousin and friends who live in Madrid,but they don't use the train to go to work, she said.
said.
Although Isla de Arosa isn't close to Madrid, she said it was common for her to go there.
She said she was in Madrid as recent as this Christmas and that she goes there almost every summer.
Eyewitness shocked as driver crashes into Kwik Shop
Edited by Nikki Nugent
By Neeley J. Spellmeier
npspellmeier@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Lawrence Police Department arrested a 19-year-old Lawrence woman on suspicion of operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.
The woman was arrested after a truck she was reportedly driving crashed through a Kwik Shop. 1846 Massachusetts St., at 1:38 a.m. Friday. Police caught up with the 1999 black Chevy truck near 17th and Vermont streets. The woman was later released on $600 bail.
"I thought, 'Damn those people are going fast,' and then I said that to my friend on the phone."
A bag of Combs snacks may have been a giveaway for the police. When they stopped the truck, the bag was embedded in the truck's windshield.
the tree where Eyewitness Kim Elsham, Overland Park senior, said she was sitting in her car in the far north lane of the parking lot in front of the store. She was talking on her cell phone when she saw headlights in her rearview mirror.
"I thought, 'Damn, those people are going fast,' and then I said
Kim Elsham
Overland Park senior
that to my friend on the phone," said Elsham, who is also a Jayplay assistant editor.
places and began to drive.
As the truck began to pull up next to her, she said she thought it was going to come to a screeching halt. Instead, it crashed through the giant picture window of the Kwik Shop, plowing all the shelves to the store's back wall. Even the glass on the farthest fridge was shattered.
Elsham said she watched as the truck sat for about 10 seconds and then it began to reverse out of the store. A woman was driving, and was obviously scared. Elsham said. Elsham said the woman was shouting at the guy in the passenger seat and then he traded her
Plywood was used to cover a hole in the Kwik Shop at 1846 Massachusetts St. after a truck crashed through it early Friday morning. A 19-year-old driver was arrested on suspicion of operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.
As the two people were doing this, Elsham said she ran behind the truck and wrote down its license plate number. Then the truck drove off, she said.
After going inside to investigate, Elsham said she saw no one was in the store and she was worried that people were trapped underneath the shelves, but she couldn't see or hear anyone.
As she was looking around, the man who had been working behind the counter returned. She said she called 911 from the store's phone because the worker was too shaken to do so.
Steven Crooks, a 22-year-old Lawrence resident, also witnessed the accident. Crooks said he had gone into the store to buy cigarettes and food, and he was almost to the counter when he heard glass shatter. He said the worker yelled at him to follow him and took off running. He said they ran out the back door and across the street because the employee was concerned the people in the truck might be trying to rob the shop.
Elsham said though she couldn't really judge, she thought the truck
had pulled in at about 25 mph
A Kwik Shop employee said it was company policy not to speak
with the media.
- Edited by Meghan Brune
IS YOUR HIGH SCHOOL LISTED BELOW?
55th Annual
Principal-Counselor-Student Conference
Wednesday, March 17,2004
Kansas Union Ballroom
Student Conferences
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Your high school counselor needs you! Please stop by and visit with a representative from your high school any time between 1:30-2:30 p.m. This is your opportunity to share your KU experiences and transition from high school to KU with a representative from your high school.
KANSAS HIGH SCHOOLS Atchison County Community
B&B Blue Valley Northwest Buhler
Derby
El Dorado
Ellinwood
Highland Park Holcomb
Haven
Hays
Hiawatha
Jackson Heights Jefferson County North
Fredonia
Lawrence
Hutchinson
Maize
Paola Perry-Lecompton Plainville
Royal Valley
Osawatomie Oxford
KANSAS
Sacred Heart
Seaman
Shawnee Heights
St. Mary's
Wichita East
Wichita Northwest
Wichita South
Thomas More Prep-Marian
OUT OF STATE HIGH SCHOOLS
Bishop Kelly Winnetonka