On the sunny morning of Sept. 11, members of the UW-Madison community awoke with the rest of the country to an unthinkable sight on their television screens: The twin towers of the World Trade Center, hit by hijacked commercial planes, were burning and collapsing before a worldwide audience.
In those early hours, confusion reigned. Terrorism seemed likely, but by who and how? The Pentagon was hit and a plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field; there were reports of other planes in the air, even car bombs. Authorities evacuated the nation's landmarks, from the U.S. Capitol to the Sears Tower. Federal authorities grounded all air traffic for the first time in history. The president could not come back to Washington. America was under attack.
So began a long, strange trip that no one could have imagined a year ago, including an indeterminate war on terrorism, bioterrorism scares at home and claims that civil liberties were being violated.
In the process, President Bush gained a strong mandate, with approval ratings that have remained at or near record levels, and marshaled an international response that included military action in Afghanistan and measures aimed to disrupt international terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda.
On campus, administrators canceled afternoon classes Sept. 14 and 20,000 gathered on Library Mall in observance of the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance. Students and community members rallied throughout the fall in support of either peace or U.S. military action.
Civil liberties became a major issue on campus and around the nation, particularly for international students, as many criticized the Justice Department's adoption of sweeping investigative powers following the attacks. In December, federal authorities sought interviews with 5,000 Middle Eastern men in the United States on visas, including UW-Madison students. The government is now also considering stricter controls on international students, including limiting courses of study.
Nearly eight months after the attacks, many questions remain unanswered. The U.S. military continues its action in Afghanistan, with some of the fiercest fighting of the war in recent months. The administration, despite President Bush's famous reference to the \axis of evil"" in his State of the Union address Jan. 29, has not firmly committed to the next stage in the war on terror. Osama bin Laden and the perpetrator of last fall's anthrax scare remain at large. And the debate over how the nation's new priorities for security will manifest themselves in its citizens' everyday lives is just beginning.
