9/11
Tomorrow, we will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Officer Baker will conduct the ceremonial lowering of the flag to half staff at sunrise (7:22am). Families and students are invited to join; to do so, park in the gravel or gym lots and cross to assemble around the flagpole by the front entrance. We will further solemnize the occasion briefly in our morning assemblies before students proceed to class.
From Dr. Shipp:
I’m thinking about three things right now – our constitution, our constitutional order, and our community.
The Constitution is on my mind partly because next Thursday is Constitution Day, and partly because we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln used the metaphor of an apple of gold in a frame of silver. The Constitution provides the framework that allows the principles of the Declaration to shine forth in practice. Next Thursday, Indiana Attorney General Rokita will visit campus. He’ll give out copies of the Constitution. We venerate it, and for good reason.
Our constitutional system has proved a great blessing. It was animated by noble principles and pragmatically fitted to the American people. It was imperfect, and, even more so, imperfectly followed, but it is a thoroughly prudent document. It set out to create a system wherein power was divided between the national and state governments, between the three branches, and between the two houses. It was realistic about the nature of man. It was modest, leaving room for the local and the private. It was adaptable to tremendous growth in land and people and changes in technology. There’s a reason it’s the first and oldest written constitution in human history. Through our constitutional order, Americans have enjoyed freedom and prosperity on a scale and duration unparalleled in human history.
I am also thinking about our constitutional order because of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Like so many, I know where I was a quarter of a century ago. Americans collectively felt that that moment was aimed at the roots of the American order. I watched friends enter the military, study their history and government, and take up public service. I believe now as I did then that our constitutional order is a precious inheritance that we do well to prize and to improve upon and to pass on.
Finally, there’s community. We’ve begun the Monroe County Fall Festival. This is the real genius of our constitutional system. It remembers that successful self-government begins with ourselves and our communities. It’s a sign of real health that volunteers have coordinated with state and local officials and with our business community to put on a three-day event. It is a marker of vitality that so many of us will overcome unfamiliarity and our petty differences and we’ll rub shoulders at a three-day festival organized by local volunteers who think — rightly — that this will help build up our community and that community-building is worthwhile.
Where we’re looking back two hundred and fifty years or looking forward two days — whether we’re thinking internationally, nationally, or locally — whether our minds are weighed down by moments of failure or loss or stirred by high ideals and a rich history — there’s much to think about here in the middle of September. It’s a time when I’m proud to be an American, and when I’m thankful to be part of a school that offers students their birthright and cultivates civic virtue.