Less than a week ago the American people were attacked by unspeakable horror. Suicidal terrorists with malice and forethought and intense hatred for the United States used our people, our wide-bodied commercial aircraft, our systems, our national symbols against us, killing over 5,000 people and spiraling millions more into grief and sadness.

The emotions of the American people and indeed of people around the world the last six days have been a roller coaster of fear, anger, hate, sorrow, sadness, and despair. During the last 144 hours we have seen the nation come together in mourning for the victims many of whom we knew. We have come together in pain and in concern for ourselves and our futures. We have come together in admiration and awe and thankfulness for the rescuers-dead and alive-and the care-givers who displayed and continue to display such courage.

We have come together in patriotism and support of our country and we have seen in our togetherness a renewal of our spiritual and inner selves.

Now for months and months and months to come we face uncertainty and turmoil and we wonder aloud and privately whether things will ever be the same as they were before 9:00am on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

The answer to that wondering is undoubtedly NO! We will not be the same. We will be forever changed. It is now for us however, together, the survivors, to determine what form and shape that change should take for ourselves and for our children's children.

We need to maintain our togetherness as Americans and world citizens and move forward with steadfastness and purpose to punish the masterminders of the horror and to make sure that an atrocity like this never occurs again.

We need to temper our anger and fear with sound judgement and good reasoning.

We need to counter balance our hate with love and our despair with hope.

We need to ease our uneasiness with the comfortable and the familiar. We need the security of family and friends.

Here at Salem State College we have much to be thankful for and much that will sustain us in the months ahead. We are a learning community. We are a deliberative community. We are a welcoming community. We are a caring community. We need to reach out to one another and we need to reach out to the world. Each in our own ways.

We need to give blood or to contribute to a life saving charity or to volunteer our services in the recovery effort or be extra kind to our friends and family and fellow Salem Staters.

We need to keep intelligently informed and contribute as we can to the decision making process. Some of us will volunteer or be called to military or intelligence services-at home and abroad. Some of us will stay behind with prayers and genuine moral support and fortitude.

All of us will survive, for we are a resilient and a strong people, world wide, nationally, and here at Salem State College.

My prayer for each of us today is that we take comfort and security from our community and our togetherness and that we move forward and help forge safe and fulfilling futures for us and generations to come.