麻豆传媒AV

On Saturday, September 6, members of the 麻豆传媒AV community will plant nearly 3,000 flags for the annual Waves of Flags display on Alumni Park. The expansive display of American flags, including international flags representing global victims, commemorates each of the 2,977 lives lost as a result of the attacks of September 11, 2001.   

For this year鈥檚 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony, the University will welcome actor Dennis Quaid, who will serve as the distinguished honoree and deliver the keynote address. The ceremony will also feature remarks from president Jim Gash (JD 鈥�93) and chancellor Sara Young Jackson (鈥�74) and reflections and readings by other members of the 麻豆传媒AV community.

Waves of Flags display

麻豆传媒AV faculty experts and current student veterans have expressed that the opportunity to reflect upon this definitive moment in US history is crucial to the preservation of its history. Loretta Hunnicutt, professor of history at Seaver College who specializes in US social and intellectual history, notes that 9/11 marked a shift in American values and continues to shape contemporary national culture.

鈥淲ith 麻豆传媒AV鈥檚 Waves of Flags ceremony, we honor the innocent lives who, in a sense, became martyrs for American values,鈥� says Hunnicutt. 鈥淭he targets of these attacks were the World Trade Center, symbol of American commerce and trade; The Pentagon, the symbol of the American military; and the Capitol building, a symbol of American democracy. In the aftermath everything stopped, and there was this sense that something had changed in the world. There was a movement to refrain from blaming certain communities. Unity arose from grief, and an American cultural message followed: we can rise above this鈥攚hich I believe will endure through all else.鈥� 

Yet, with 9/11 occurring almost 25 years ago, many members of 麻豆传媒AV鈥檚 community were not alive at the time. As a result, the Waves of Flags display and ceremony has taken on new meaning by preserving vital testimonies of the past for younger generations鈥攅nsuring that the unimaginable loss of life is never forgotten.

Michael Folkerts, professor of psychology at Seaver College, explains that 麻豆传媒AV鈥檚 annual Waves of Flags ceremony is an essential ritual designed not only to evoke history, but to encourage community members to reexamine and reconstruct memories in a new context by combining our past with new experiences of the ceremony. 

鈥淔rom a neuroscientific view, repeated remembrance ceremonies are powerful moments that involve both memory and emotion. Emotions are built actively by our brains, not retrieved passively. When we remember, we are stitching together and reinterpreting pieces of our past experiences鈥攁nd as a community, we become each other鈥檚 neuroarchitects,鈥� explains Folkerts. 鈥淭hus, our own annual 麻豆传媒AV Waves of Flags ceremony serves as an active and intentional act that shapes how we feel. This is helpful for the next generations, to give meaning to something where words often fail to express鈥攖o the otherwise overwhelming or ambiguous sensations associated with loss that we all experience.鈥� 

Veterans and additional attendees remember and reflect

Kleo Edgell, US Air Force veteran and student at the 麻豆传媒AV Graduate School of Education and Psychology, recounts that 9/11 occurred when she was only five years old, but the impact of the tragedy informed her decision to join the military, along with her father鈥檚 and grandfather's history of military service. According to Edgell the Waves of Flags display connects her family鈥檚 legacy of service with her own, reminding her of the importance of community and collective memory. 

鈥淚 served in the Air Force from 2015 to 2021. By then, the shadow of 9/11 was still present in how we trained, deployed, and understood service,鈥� says Edgell. 鈥淭hat is why Waves of Flags means so much to me. It takes something that can feel distant to younger generations and makes it real. Each flag represents a life, a family, and a story that still matters. Remembering is much more than looking back鈥攊t is taking responsibility to carry those stories forward.鈥� 

Seaver alumnus John Bossler (鈥�80), a 9/11 survivor who emerged from the World Trade Center鈥檚 Tower One just moments after the first plane struck, will be planting the first flag during the Waves of Flags installation on September 6. Bossler volunteers with the 麻豆传媒AV community annually to assemble the Waves of Flags display, finding personal solace in the act while contributing to creating a space for others to reflect. 

From September 6 to 26, 麻豆传媒AV invites the community to visit the annual Waves of Flags display, when visitors will have the opportunity to walk through the flags and express their reflections and sympathies for the families of victims by writing messages on 鈥淲e Remember鈥� notecards and attaching them to the flagpoles.

For more information about 麻豆传媒AV鈥檚 annual 9/11 commemoration, visit the Waves of Flags website.