Under the baobab: Coming together to remember 9/11 offers reminder of unity

9/11/2023 State College. We gather to remember.

I was in New York City on 9/11/2001, playing a judge on “Ed.” We had just finished filming a courtroom scene when someone said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We had just been near there. It was near where the transport van had picked us up earlier that morning. The only news program broadcasting was a Spanish language station. The networks had their antennas on top of the WTC, and they’d been knocked out by the attack.

We gathered around the tiny TV just in time to watch the second plane crash. That’s when we knew. It had not been an accident. Our world — everyone’s world — changed forever. Later both towers collapsed. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, including hundreds of firefighters and police. Within months our country was at war in Afghanistan, then Iraq. President Biden ended that war in Afghanistan last year. It was the longest war in our country’s history.

We never resumed filming the show that day. Our high-powered lights were confiscated for use at ground zero. A few of us tried to go down to help in the recovery. Nonprofessionals weren’t permitted on the site. Some folks tried to call friends and family at the WTC. They could not get through. I called my wife. She had recently worked at the WTC as a TV broadcast engineer. But on that day she was teaching at Penn State. The production company got the cast and crew hotel rooms in New Jersey. Looking across the George Washington Bridge, New York City looked wounded. It was. We all were.

The next year I was awarded a Fulbright to teach in South Africa. People there couldn’t understand how deeply the attack had affected Americans. I wrote a play, “9/11 A Day in the Life of a People,” an hour drama based on the stories of 12 ordinary people who went through the 9/11 experience in NYC, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. We few resident Americans, Fulbrighters, academics and students performed the play. The first reading was sponsored by the U.S. Consulate for the diplomatic community in Capetown. When we returned to State College some of us performed the piece at PSU’s Downtown Theatre Center. It was the first theatrical event held at the newly opened Center.

An annual ritual evolved. Every year the play was performed on the anniversary of the attack. After the performance we invited members of the audience to share their own experiences of 9/11. Some of those stories were added to the text of the play. On the 10th anniversary, we were invited to perform it at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

This past Friday the Penn State College Republicans, under the leadership of Hunter Steach, director of special events, hosted a 9/11 Memorial Service on Old Main Lawn. Ten PSU alums perished on 9/11: Kermit Anderson, Patrick Dwyer, Michael Ferugio, Scott Hazelcorn, Howard Kane, David Kovalcin, Michele Nelson, Michael Perscherine, Jean Roger and David Suarez. Their names were read aloud while roses were presented in their honor. A flag for each victim — 2,977 of them — were displayed on the lawn. Guest speakers were Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi, U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson and State College Mayor Ezra Nanes. Penn State Board of Trustees members Brandon Short and Robert Fenza attended, as did the College Democrats head Baybars Charkas, and representatives of several veterans organizations.

These days there is much that works to unravel the threads in the fabric of our political democracy. When we come together as a country and community to remember 9/11 we are reminded that we are one people still twined together in one destiny. The flags will remain on display until 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He was the 2022 Lion’s Paw Awardee and Living Legend honoree of the National Black Theatre Festival. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.