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[SEPT. 14, 2001]  I cried today. Not knowing personally a single victim, I cried. My heart fell with the towers.

[SEPT. 14, 2001]  I am a U.S. citizen, from Houston, Texas, now living in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was evening here when we got the news about the attack on the United States by terrorists. I spent the night on the Internet, bouncing around to news websites, slowed maddeningly by the heavy traffic on the Net.

[Click here to view pictures]

It was a night of frustration. One of loneliness, anger and without sleep.

I went to the U.S. Consulate today to register. They are asking all U.S. nationals to check in. I got there, and outside there were a few people standing around and a bunch of flowers lying in front of the building. It was very nice. Across the street, there was another group of flowers, with some candles. (I found out later that security wouldn’t let them light candles close to the building, so anyone with candles to light was asked to do it across the street.) I went in, registered, then came back out to talk to some of the people milling around.

It was a very interesting day. I talked to a couple of hundred people throughout the day, and maybe five of them were U.S. citizens. Of the others, they were all Russians, save for a pair of English girls.

The people would come, slowly, quietly, respectfully. They came to pray, for the most part. They would stop in front of the building, place their flowers gently on the ground if they had them, then most would pray. Some cried, quietly. The flowers came from normal, everyday Russians who felt moved to come to the consulate, say a prayer and drop off some flowers. Most people didn’t bring flowers. They brought sad hearts, filled with sympathy for you and me. Most people only stayed a couple of minutes before leaving.

I spent the entire day there and met no one who was happy about what happened.

I met the mayor of St. Petersburg, a guy named Yakovlev. I also met the leader of the parliament.

Later, I met a winner of the Nobel Prize in physics. His name is Zhores Alferov. He said: "I am very distraught. This was a terrible tragedy for the world. All Russians feel the suffering of the people of the U.S. We are with you today and will be with you tomorrow."

Late in the afternoon a group of about 15 teenagers came along, led by a lady who I correctly surmised was their teacher. They had decided after school on an impromptu visit to the consulate.

I met a lady with tears streaming down her cheeks as she lit a candle placed in a small jar to keep the rain and wind away. She spoke about being a little girl in Leningrad during the siege. She was very concerned about me and our national state of mind. She assured me we would overcome this and encouraged me to rally my countrymen to arms.

One man I met was a World War II veteran, wearing a shabby old suit coat in the rainy weather. Pinned to his coat were combat ribbons, earned during his youth on the field of battle against Hitler’s armies. His wife, an old, wrinkled woman with silver teeth, bent down with a few pathetic flowers and laid them amongst the others as the old man wiped away tears. I walked over to him and said hello. He spoke for about five minutes in a very low but passionate voice. I understood almost none of the words, but I knew what he said by looking in his eyes. After he was done, I thanked him, as an American, for caring.

Another newsman there told me that what the old man had said was more or less that he felt our pain. He lived in the neighborhood and had always been proud to say his home was close to the U.S. Consulate. He met American soldiers on the front in World War II, and he always loved America. He said he was hurt terribly by what happened but that now, like before, America and Russia should be allies in a war on a despicable foe. Just like in World War II, now America and Russia could be friends, fighting side by side against an enemy who wanted to exterminate us.

I cried. More than once.

I left today in a very angry, nationalistic mood. I was hoping to find trouble. What I found was that America does have friends. Friends in some of the most unlikely places, but friends that shouldn’t be overlooked. We aren’t alone.

[Dave Francis, St. Petersburg, Russia]

[SEPT. 14, 2001]  My son and I had an argument Tuesday after school. I tried to tell him that nothing in the history of America compared to what had happened to this nation on this day. He seemed to be taking it all in stride and told me he understood that the day’s number of fatalities was terrible. He understood that people just like him and me had been killed or maimed for no true reason other than religious hate. He also told me that we would get over the day’s events and move on with our lives.

All the while I was filling my mouth with sanctimonious comments about never forgetting today, my son told me we will because we have to. Oh, he realized we would always remember Tuesday, 9-11-2001, just like we do Pearl Harbor Day or the bombing in Oklahoma City. Just like the Holocaust, stories about the events would engrain themselves in the history books of this country forever. The point he was trying to make that my injured self-righteous American ego didn’t want to hear that day was that we needed to move on with our lives.

I asked my son in a very non-fatherly loud voice how he could just shrug off the events of this day with such an easy "oh well."

My son then decided to remind me he had grown up with Waco and the Oklahoma City bombing. He had seen the devastation in our African embassies and told me he could not remember how many school massacres he had seen on television in the last six years. I couldn’t either, and if that doesn’t cause people to have tears in their eyes there is no hope for us.

My son wanted to know what good my notion of retribution through violence really would do to change the world. He pushed me to answer if we killed a thousand terrorists who were involved with this tragedy, would not another thousand take their place. Would not those then do something just as heinous to us again? "Where does it stop, Dad? World War III?"

My son explained to me that his life is subject to views of violence on television that should rock the minds of a young teenager to the point many of them shut the entire rationale of the events out of their minds. The violence isn’t from movies or wrestling or video games. The violence my child and yours has been subjected to in this world is all on the news under the heading: "reality."

We seem to spend a great deal of our time trying to shield our children from make-believe violence. We fear what it might do to their still-developing personalities. We seem to spend far less time worrying about the violence our children are subjected to that is all encompassed under the heading: "The Evening News."

I was wrong getting mad at my son. I take great pride in the fact he is developing his own will and his own opinions. Patching things up, we watched the television together. Surfing I remarked how the shopping networks had gone to news coverage. The music video stations and almost all other specialty channels did as well.

My son noticed that one of the few channels not covering the events was the history channel. "This doesn’t make much sense does it, Dad?"

I agreed.

Again I apologized to my son and vented out my frustration on a channel that is supposed to be about history not covering this historic event.

My son believes this is not the last time we will watch such horrible events together. I can give him no truthful promise that he is incorrect.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

[SEPT. 13, 2001]  Many Americans watched thousands or even tens of thousands of their fellow citizens die before their eyes Tuesday morning. People who had their televisions turned on shortly before 10:30 a.m. Eastern time and 7:30 a.m. Pacific time had just watched video replays of a kamikaze-type attack upon the World Trade Center.

Even the chilling sight of a civilian passenger aircraft angling into position for a direct crash into one of the 110-story twin towers could not prepare us for what was next.

We watched live video of the tower as its top 30 or so stories burned. And then, the top of the building collapsed before our eyes. We watched in stunned silence as it impacted on the structure immediately below, starting a horrible chain reaction of destruction.

We knew immediately that an incomprehensibly high number of human lives were lost in those few seconds. And it didn’t take long to realize that what we were witnessing was the result of perhaps the single most deadly attack against Americans, either on foreign or domestic soil. Deadlier than Pearl Harbor. Deadlier than the Battle of Midway. Incredibly, the death toll could approach the 50,000 who died in the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in the U.S. Civil War.

Tuesday’s kamikaze-style attacks were nothing less than a direct attack against the people and property of the United States of America. The enemy didn’t use bombs, didn’t use missiles and didn’t use ground or sea forces.

Don’t let anyone try to tell you that this was merely someone’s attempt to make a statement. We will remember Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, as the day that the nation’s eyes were opened forever to the scope of the threat posed by foreign terrorists. It was the day that an individual or group as yet unidentified declared war on the United States of America.

[to top of second column in this article]

The majority of our readers were not alive when Pearl Harbor occurred, so this is the first time many have experienced the horror of a successful attack of large magnitude against the United States by a foreign interest.

We are now at war. We’re not exactly sure with whom, although it should become fairly clear in short order.

Nobody is in favor of civilian casualties or the loss of human life of any kind. But the time has come for the United States to exercise its might and position as the world’s superpower, and to spare no expense and leave no stone or nation unturned to locate and capture and-or eradicate the perpetrators. President Bush Tuesday morning vowed to do just that.

It’s time that we show not only the perpetrators of this attack, but other terrorists who have designs on U.S. interests, that we are not to be messed with. In the aftermath of the terrorists being captured or eradicated, it is important that other terror interests in the world be left shaking in their shoes at the enormity, precision and the decisiveness of the U.S. response.

We mourn the thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of Americans who died Tuesday in New York, Washington, D.C., and near Pittsburgh. We must defend our way of life and avenge their senseless deaths by realizing we are at war and eradicating our enemy.

[Tom Mitsoff]

Tom Mitsoff is a daily newspaper editor and syndicated editorial columnist. His web address is http://www.tommitsoff.com.

Reply to Tom Mitsoff: tmitsoff@hotmail.com

Reply to LDN editor: ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com

[SEPT. 12, 2001]  Two hundred citizens of Logan County gathered in Latham Park at noon Tuesday to pray. Some of them prayed for the many who at the moment were suffering from the devastation brought on by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Others prayed for the families of those thousands of victims. Still others prayed for help and guidance from God because they understood that America will never be the same after Sept. 11, 2001.

Across America millions met in similar gatherings. Millions more will as the days go on. America stopped as government across the nation stayed home. Every monument in the land locked its gates as air traffic across the land ceased. Millions even at work or school stopped what they were doing and sat riveted in front of televisions as the carnage from a violent Hollywood movie was explained to all as fact, not fiction. Even the president of the United States as well as Congress were not to be found in their normal work environs.

On the news on every station across America, the twin towers of the World Trade Center burned like two candles as the smoke billowed and buried the Manhattan skyline under its dense plumes. Seasoned anchors fought to maintain composure at a scene that has not been a part of the American landscape since the War of 1812. Not since then have the American people been forced to witness such destruction and loss of life on our own soil. Not even Pearl Harbor can stand before this latest act of war on the American people.

Make no mistake. This was an act of war. For years we have gone about our business, shedding only a cursory glance at Lockerbie or Lebanon or the previous World Trade Center terrorist attack. For years we pretended there was no war, when all along people in other parts of the world prayed to their God that this day would come.

We have been at war with these types of terrorists for decades. Only today has this reality burrowed deep into the false world we Americans chose to live in.

They say America lost its complacency after Pearl Harbor. They say we lost our innocence after the Kennedys and King were assassinated. What will history say we lost on Sept. 11, 2001? Will it be that we have found we are not safe in our own homes, our own buildings, even our own military structures? That we cannot go to work to provide for our families without fear of death? Will it be that we cannot spend our lives concerned with such mundane thoughts as college for the kids or a new car or house or paying an overdue bill? Will we forevermore find the need to look over our shoulder and worry whether today is the day that a stranger 10,000 miles away takes away our loved ones, all in the name of God?

There are people in this world who hate you and me although we have never met. They hate our nation, our leaders and everything we believe in. They believe that if they can kill us, they will find a special place in heaven for their acts of murder.

I hope that soon whoever was responsible will be sent to their God, and then let them find out the truth about being a murderer of men, women and children whose only transgression was living their lives the best that they knew.

After Pearl Harbor, as the Japanese naval hierarchy celebrated their infamous victory, Admiral Yammamoto stated that he feared they had awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.

You got that right.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

[SEPT. 6, 2001]  The old school bell casts a shadow on the Walnut Grove School House. For 50 years it has patiently waited for the call to summon rural children back into the building for another day of learning.

[Click here to view pictures]

The schoolhouse owned by Lon and Nancy Simpson sits on a section of their property between Remington Seed company and their home on Route 10. The Simpsons purchased the structure in 1993 from Harold Stoll and had it moved to its new foundation and site. Originally intended to house a small gift shop and tearoom, the schoolhouse for the past several years has been rented out as a home by the Simpsons.

Although the schoolhouse has seen modernization in plumbing, electricity and a modern basement that creates living space for tenants, the upstairs schoolhouse is as it was 100 years ago. The original tin ceilings, flooring and woodwork, as well as blackboards, easily represent the same appearance students in 1902 would have seen on their first day of school in the building.

The Simpsons have maintained the old schoolhouse and have, in effect, probably saved it from the fate that hundreds of such structures have met over the years.

Often these one-room schoolhouses would be situated in a grove of trees in the middle of a stretch of farmland. Each of those schools would serve the educational needs of the farm children in the immediate area. As time went on, farms became larger and rural families fewer and farther between. Consolidation occurred, leaving the buildings situated in the middle of nowhere — obsolete and without purpose. There they sat until the elements or a farmer’s tractor drove them into extinction.

[to top of second column in this commentary]

Records show that few of these buildings still exist, but Walnut Grove School still does and sits waiting to be used again, if not by students then perhaps by visitors wanting to see what school was like a century ago.

The Simpsons have ideas of moving in a few years and, like doting parents, are concerned about the future of their schoolhouse. Approximately five years ago Mount Pulaski expressed an interest in purchasing the school, as did the city of Atlanta. To date nothing has come of those initial conversations. The Simpsons are not actively seeking a buyer for the building, but in the event a group is interested in purchasing and maintaining the school as a historic structure, they would be willing to discuss the possibility.

In a day when Lincoln is making a great deal about Postville Courthouse and a well on Fifth Street, an interest in having this historic building become part of the Lincoln tourism experience seems like a natural to this observer.

I am presently working on this school and can tell you a walk inside the structure yields more antiquity and nostalgia than anything Lincoln currently has, except the county courthouse.

Hey, Lincoln, in the event you want to expand sites for tourism, call the Simpsons. The old school bell is just dying to ring an opening of the schoolhouse doors once again. It would be great if it occurred in Lincoln.

[Mike Fak]

Reply to Fak (not for publication):

mikefak@msn.com

Response to Fak’s commentary:

ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com 

This is the em space, a staff writer’s section with observations about life experiences in Logan County and elsewhere. Enjoy your visit.

— Mary Krallmann

[Mary Krallmann] 

Where They Stand

Where They Stand is a commentary section that poses a question about a specific issue in the community. Informed individuals present their position with facts, opinions or insights on the issue. The following commentaries have been printed, unedited, in their entirety, as they were received. If you have further comment on the issue, please send an e-mail message, complete with your name, address and telephone number to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com.

By the Numbers

Alexis Asher

Alexis Asher

Lincoln High School history

1859

Lincoln School District

5

School buildings in 1859

1

"Grammar school" in 1859

1

High school teacher, Mr. January, in 1859

1870-71

Central School opened

1898

High school building started

1900

High school dedicated, Jan. 5

$20,000

Cost of new high school

1920

Election authorized community high school District #404

1958

Dedication of new Lincoln Community High School, 1000 Primm Road, in auditorium, on Nov. 9

Alexis Asher

How We Stack Up

Racial makeup of selected Illinois counties

What’s Up With That?

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