Yale community members have discussed various aspects of the Sept. 11 tragedy in the media and on campus. Here are some of their remarks.
"[W]hat I had been hearing is people saying we can't do anything about these kinds of attacks because we will lose our freedoms. ... I think we could be more efficient and more effective at doing these things without anybody really noticing a change in their lifestyles."
"Deadly Attacks May Loosen CIA's Shackles," The San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 12, 2001.
"Experts Warn U.S. Must Adapt Foreign Policy to Fight Terrorism," New Haven Register, Sept. 12, 2001.
"No Clear Picture of Enemy," Hartford Courant, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Robert A.M. Stern, Dean and the J.M. Hoppin Professor of Architecture, School of Architecture, and this fall's William Clyde DeVane Professor
"[Although architects can test a building's ability to withstand impacts in computer simulations,] an explosion induced by a plane flying into it is incredible. If something is truly unprecedented, it's kind of hard to anticipate it."
"Towers' Design Absorbed Initial Hits," New Haven Register, Sept. 12, 2001.
"Watching a Creation from Infancy to Rubble," The New York Times, Sept. 14, 2001.
"Terror Rocks Foundation of Modern Society," Calgary Herald, Sept. 16, 2001.
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Dorothy Singer, Senior research scientist/scholar in psychology and the Child Study Center
"When I first saw the smoke, I thought, I've seen that before. Then I thought, wait, this is real. It takes you a split second to separate it, to shake it off, especially when you see that building toppling down. ...
"You've Seen This Before, But You Haven't: Yes, It's Like a Bad Movie, But It's Real," The Hartford Courant, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Jay Gitlin, Lecturer in history and executive coordinator of the Howard Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders
"For years, even decades, the pop culture and communications industries have been trying to attract and entertain us with doses and images of terror, adolescent nightmares, the deviance undercutting the normal and complacent. But such products require a level of social confidence. You can only make such things in an environment of safety.
"That safe position of American society, our postmodern cool, came crashing down today. No bad movie can ever match what became for everybody a horrible documentary."
"You've Seen This Before, But You Haven't: Yes, It's Like a Bad Movie, But It's Real," The Hartford Courant, Sept. 12, 2001.
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John Morton Blum, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History
"Americans aren't used to being in a war zone. From here on, they are. No superpower has ever been hit like this."
"Minute by Minute Fear Envelops the Country," USA Today, Sept. 12, 2001.
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David DeRosa, Professor (adjunct), School of Management
Assessing the economic impact of the attacks: "The loss of human life and suffering is the most important thing; beyond that it's a cruel wake-up lesson to the vulnerability of states to terrorism."
"Attacks Strike at US Financial Center, Amid Fragile Economy," Agence France Presse, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Gaddis Smith, Professor Emeritus of History
"This is the kind of reaction -- a sense of national unity and determination -- we saw after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. People will come together for the cause with great energy and devotion."
"We Will Do Whatever We Can," The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA), Sept. 11, 2001.
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Paul Bracken, Professor, School of Management
Asked how America should respond to the attacks: "A very interesting game is going on here. We learned from the Bible, 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' If we come back with a puny response, we'll look weak and make the situation worse."
"Experts Warn U.S. Must Adapt Foreign Policy to Fight Terrorism," New Haven Register, Sept. 12, 2001.
"Free Trade and Globalization Will Continue, Despite Terrorist Attacks on America," National Public Radio, Sept. 12, 2001.
"The name of the game is not really to punish these groups but to make them go away, to stop doing what they do. Our whole policy toward Israel and the Middle East really needs to be re-evaluated. We thought that we could stand back from the peace process, which has collapsed. Now it looks like we're being dragged into a war process."
"Terror Requires a Military Reply, But How -- And Against Whom?" Investor's Business Daily, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Ruth Wedgwood, Professor of law
"[The attacks were] not just an act of war; these are war crimes. No one has declared martial law, but it is a state of emergency."
"U.S. Intelligence Points to Bin Laden Network," The Washington Post, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Strobe Talbott, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
"I think it's very important for us to see it not just as an attack on the United States. It, of course, is an attack on the United States, but I suspect that when we go through the dreadful process of toting up the carnage here and we start putting names and faces to the victims, one thing we will see is that there were many, many people killed today who are not Americans.
"This was really a blow against the entire international system. All the world suffered from this. And the response has to be equally international. We were able in the past ... to assemble great alliances that were able to defeat great villains, and a new alliance is necessary to defeat this villain. ...
"They're up against a very tough problem here. I mean, essentially we have an enemy here that's exploiting what makes our society as strong and as effective as it is, which is its freedom, its openness and its mobility. So anybody who wants to take advantage of that is going to have some clean shots along the way. The extraordinary thing about this one is that they were able to take a number simultaneously. ..."
"Improving American Intelligence Will Become a Higher Priority in the Wake of the Latest Terrorist Attacks," Jim Lehrer NewsHour, Sept. 11, 2001.
"Strobe Talbott Discusses How the US Should React Once It Is Determined Who Is Responsible for Today's Attacks," National Public Radio, Sept. 11, 2001.
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Dr. Steven J. Berkowitz, Assistant professor, Child Study Center
"For young children, it's important to tell them simply and directly that bad things have happened. They'll take their cue from how you're emotionally presenting yourself. If you're overwhelmed and worried, they'll know."
"Talking About Tragedy Teaches Youngsters How To Cope," New Haven Register,
"Right now, football players are one of the things that can best [bring about a sense of control after a period of mourning] in this country. They have the ability to show that we are still a people and football is, somehow, who we are.
"We have to take the helplessness and say, 'We're going to do something with it.' Whether it's giving blood or playing football, that's important. For Vinny Testaverde to throw a touchdown pass, that's going to help relieve concern and make people feel better."
"Fear of Terrorism Hangs Overhead for
Athletes," ESPN.com, Sept. 13, 2001.
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Dr. Robert A. Rosenheck,
Professor of psychiatry and
of epidemiology and public health
"Trauma is a fundamental interruption in our assumptions of stability and order. This is what happens when somebody dies that we're close to, or we're in a car crash. Our minds need time to absorb what's happened, put together images of who we are in the world. That affects professional athletes like anyone else."
"Fear of Terrorism Hangs Overhead for Athletes," ESPN.com, Sept. 13, 2001.
"Experts Advise People To Talk About Fears, Experiences," Associated Press, Sept. 13, 2001.
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Robert Shiller,
The Stanley B. Resor Professor
of Economics
"If no one wants to take airplane trips and if businesses are in kind of a holding pattern and postpone initiatives, and corporate investments drop, it could lead to a decline in confidence in the market. ...
"[Historically, in the longer term] the stock market tends to underreact to big events. ... I think it will underreact again. I don't think this will be a huge disaster for the market."
"When Stock Market Reopens, Investors Will Face Uncertainty," Associated Press, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Holly Prigerson,
Associate professor of psychiatry and
of epidemiology and public health
Advising parents to limit children's repeated viewing of the tragedy: "There is no benefit from witnessing traumatic events -- over and over again. It will be a parent's job to minimize their child's fears and make them feel safe."
"Kids Can Cope Differently, Depending on Their Ages," Newsday.com, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Dr. Kyle Pruett,
Clinical professor, Child Study Center
"Even if you feel you can somehow protect your kids, your children's friends will arrive at school packed to the brim with information, misinformation, rage and excitement. It will find its way into your children's lives very, very quickly. ...
"Kids will play out their version of the tragedy. Don't be surprised if you see them building Lego towers and then having toy airplanes crash into them again and again. Kids need to do this. It's their work to make sense of it for themselves. Don't see this as a perpetuation of violence."
"Talking About Tragedy Teaches Youngsters How To Cope," New Haven Register,
Sept. 13, 2001.
-"Television Tries To Explain Terror Attacks To Children with Special Programs, Discussions," Associated Press, Sept. 15, 2001.
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Harold Hongju Koh,
The Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law
"There is no doubt that the people who did this are war criminals, but if it turns out they were acting largely in an isolated fashion, it might be more appropriate to capture them and try them than to bomb a country. ...
"This is a challenge to our open society. Will we respond within the framework of law or will we respond within the framework of vengeance?"
"U.S. Response Raises National and International Legal Issues," Associated Press,
Sept. 14, 2001.
In his article "The Best Weapon: Article I," "After the Terror, What's Next?" The Hartford Courant, Sept. 16, 2001.
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Alan Kazdin,
The John M. Musser Professor of
Psychology, and professor at the
Child Study Center and the
Institute of Social and Policy Studies.
On American's return to their daily routines: "People still have to eat and go grocery shopping."
"Attack May Hit Economy," Connecticut Post, Sept. 13, 2001.
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Dr. Edward Snyder,
Professor and associate chair of clinical affairs, Department of Internal Medicine
About the thousands who donated blood in the wake of the tragedy: "They will always have a place in their hearts [for blood banks], but whether they will go down and give blood [months from now] is another issue."
"Blood Banks Overwhelmed," The Hartford Courant, Sept. 13, 2001.
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Dr. Mark Siegel,
Assistant professor of
internal medicine (pulmonary)
About the plume of smoke and debris from the towers' collapse: "If it's sort of obvious you're breathing in smoky air, that would be enough to set off [an asthma attack in] somebody who has lung disease. ...
"The people who are already showing signs of injury to the lung from the smoke may not have seen the worst of it yet. [But] the people who are OK now are probably going to stay that way."
"Smoke, Dust from Trade Center Could Trigger Asthma, Emphysema, Other Lung Disease Attacks," Associated Press, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Dr. Steven Marans,
The Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychoanalysis, Child Study Center
"The issue is we need to be able to talk about the facts, and the fact is this terrorist attack is a tragedy and a terrifying event and is terrifying them because of how unusual it is. We also look at it as an opportunity to face it and address it and to be able to inform our children. ...
"Children and adults alike sometimes need some help and support in recognizing that feeling overwhelmed by sadness and grief is an unavoidable emotional experience."
"Kids Can Cope Differently, Depending on Their Ages," Newsday.com, Sept. 12, 2001.
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Ted Bromund, Associate director,
International Security Studies Program
"If the Taliban were responsive to diplomatic pressure, they would have responded already. If they were responsive to economic pressure, they would have responded already. The screws can only be turned so far. ...
"Declarations of war have gone out of fashion, which I think is a pity. I don't view this as building a case in the legal sense. We've gone beyond that. But I do believe profoundly we need to make the case for a military response."
"For Now Diplomacy Is Leading the New U.S. War on Terrorism," The Dallas Morning News, Sept. 15, 2001.
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Jim Sleeper, Lecturer, Department of Political Science
"The question isn't whether the powerless have a point. It's whether powerful America has enough will and moral resources to defend itself; not as the cockpit of global imperium, but as the wellspring of a politics that nourishes hope instead of fear. We have been such a wellspring at times. We are that for new citizens every day. But now we are blocked by the bloody paradox that our newest technologies and corporate networks are defenseless against the oldest religious and tribal fanaticisms which can be carried by those networks in every way."
In his article "United States' Reliance on Strength and Smarts To Deal With Tuesday's Tragedy," National Public Radio, Sept. 13, 2001.
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Paul Kennedy, The J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History and director,
International Security Studies Program
"Defeating Japan was like shooting an elephant; defeating the terrorists who inflicted these wounds upon America will be like stomping on jellyfish. ...
[I]f the terrorist world rejoices at the deaths of thousands of Americans, why should we imagine that crashing an aircraft is the worst blow that ruthless and well-organised villainy can deliver? ... That pleasant, kindly, Norman Rockwell age of the 1930s, when Americans felt safe and good about themselves, was shaken at Pearl Harbor. On Tuesday it was blown to bits, with the two skyscrapers.
"This is not what Americans like to hear. This sounds too pessimistic, too defeatist. ... The American culture celebrates quick and decisive blows, clear-cut victories, and lots of freedoms: freedom from government, freedom from taxes, freedom from international governance, freedom to drive big gas-guzzling cars and to demand cheap petrol, freedom to walk on and off an aircraft with lots of hand-baggage, freedom to be safe and secure from external troubles. The weariness and the wariness that characterise the inhabitants of Belfast or Jerusalem or Kashmir is something most Americans have not experienced and which I suspect they are psychologically unprepared to handle."
In his article "The Genie Is Out of the Bottle," Independent (United Kingdom), Sept. 16, 2001.
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Gustav Ranis, The Henry R. Luce Director, Yale Center
for International and Area Studies
"If we succumb to a garrison state mentality and curb our civil liberties substantially and engage in ethnic profiling, we will have handed our enemies their greatest victory of all on a silver platter."
From remarks made at the Yale College Teach-In in Battell Chapel on Sept. 16.
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Abbas Amanat, Professor of histor, and chair of the Council on Middle East Studies, Yale Center for International and Area Studies
"What we can say with some certainty is that such attacks do not occur out of context. ... In [the terrorists'] view those acts of violence are perfectly justified because the United States is the major supporter of Israel, and lives in New York and Washington are no more precious than those in villages of the West Bank, in their estimation."
"A Modern Pearl Harbor: An Endgame Without an Ending," Yale Daily News,
Sept. 11, 2001.
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The Reverend Frederick J. Streets, University Chaplain
"A Christian patriot's dream is seeing beyond the tears and humiliation of mass violence, searching for ways to express our thoughts and feelings about the attacks and the murders ... And we should take from it the chance to build on it and emerge as a better -- not a bitter -- America, one that is free of violence, a source of comfort and faith and hope."
"Many Pray for Peace as War Looms; At Yale's Battell Chapel, hopes for Nonviolent Solutions," New Haven Register, Sept. 17, 2001.
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William Goetzmann,
The Edwin J. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Management Studies,
School of Management
"[T]here's no empirical evidence to suggest that large political shocks are a bad signal for stock market investment."
"Witnesses to Crises, Urging Caution," The New York Times, Sept. 16, 2001.
T H I S
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Charles Hill, Visiting lecturer, International Affairs Council of the Yale Center for International & Area Studies
"In a sense, it's not unexpected; we'd been expecting terrorist attacks. But it is unexpected that our intelligence system did not pick it up."
"This could not have been pulled off by a private group on its own. This would be very difficult to do without some governmental support."
"[The twin towers were the kind of] building everybody loved to hate and hated to love. ... Nevertheless, they are powerful symbols of America and modern life. If architecture functions in the realm of symbols, they were tremendously successful, as successful as the pyramids. And, boy, do we miss them."
"We can't let those bastards beat us. We should rebuild higher. We've got to win this war, and we can't win it by going underground."
"Even for the most desensitized viewer, there is that six-degrees-of-separation thing. We all know someone who knows someone who works down there."
"Globalization is unstoppable. Communist governments couldn't stop it; neither could the state bureaucracies in other parts of the world. As globalization extends into parts of the world where extremists most bitterly oppose it, we are likely to see more terrorist incidents. But as Karl Marx argued over 150 years ago, 'Capitalism will pound down the walls that divide nations.' Business is the most dynamic force in the world today, and even the most spectacular acts of terrorism cannot contain it."
"It's virtually certain that there will be an investigation of this on the scale of the 1946 Pearl Harbor investigation. One could anticipate a major organizational restructuring of the intelligence community as a result of this, if it turns out they didn't anticipate it. ...
"[T]here is no question what the motive of the terrorist is here. It's to polarize. It's 'worse is better.' It's to try to drive the United States either into its shell, which we cannot allow to happen, or to drive the United States into kind of lashing out in a way that'll exacerbate exactly the sorts of tensions that terrorism feeds on. And we have to avoid both of those."
Sept. 13, 2001.
"That's what happens when something this terrible happens. Our intellectual capacity gets overwhelmed by our emotional response. We all have to fight to regain mastery and control of those responses. To think that, because these people are athletes they don't have these conflicts, is just kind of silly. ...
"The main thing is to take [the fear and horror you feel] seriously. Give yourself time and space in which to experience feelings and share them with people you love and trust. Just going on as if nothing is happening will not get the work of grief and healing done."
"Terrorism is never more obscene as when you try
to explain it to children."
"Congress should pass a bill giving the president specific legal authority to fight the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 tragedy. That authority should be flexible enough to deal with this evolving crisis, yet nuanced enough not to inadvertently authorize World War III."
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
Campus Mourns Tragic Attacks
A Community of Concern
Perspectives from Yale Experts
In the Wake of Tragedy
Yale receives $15 million for human genome research
'Be part of the community' psychiatrist urges in tragedy's wake
IN FOCUS: Mental Health Services
Experts to discuss 'The Development of Earth and Its Life'
Tercentennial exhibit showcases British masterpieces
Early European views of 'Wilde Americk' explored in exhibit
Law School 'runners' hope to beat Harvard to the beach
Yale employees being treated to free football, tailgate party
Conference to examine disparities in health care based on sex, race and income
Peabody invites all interested to volunteer open house
Memorial Services
Campus Notes
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