Authorities never recovered the body of Olivia Perez’s father from the ashes and steel of the Twin Towers that came crashing down on 9/11. All that remained of him was a photo, name and description on the fliers upon fliers of missing loved ones that cluttered ground zero.

But Perez didn’t need a flier to realize her father had perished. When a teacher alerted her orchestra class of the attack, she instantly knew. Her father, who had just taken a job in the Twin Towers, was gone. And she began to cry.

‘It was just an innate feeling that I knew he wasn’t coming back,’ said Perez, now a junior anthropology and biology major.

So when Perez learned the news of Osama bin Laden’s death at exactly 10:43 p.m. Sunday, she could barely sleep. Her mother, aunt and uncle called each other into the next day. Bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda and mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens, was finally dead.

‘I know that my father and those who have been lost on 9/11 are celebrating,’ Perez said.

For some students, bin Laden’s death has helped partially heal — but not yet close — the wounds of 9/11. For others, the death signals an achievement in a war that still has a long road ahead.

Remaining dangers

Bin Laden’s death is a heavy blow to al-Qaeda, but it does not mark an end to the terrorist organization, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, director of the Middle Eastern studies program at Syracuse University. He called the death a ‘great development.’

‘I think we also still need to keep in mind the story continues in so many ways,’ he said.

He expects a spike in suicide bombings and protests in Pakistan, where bin Laden was shot and killed by U.S. armed forces Sunday. Anti-Americanism is already very high there, and bin Laden’s death will only enhance it, Boroujerdi said. The ability of bin Laden to avoid capture for nearly a decade also speaks to the strength of al-Qaeda, he said.

‘I wish it was a closure,’ he said.

The U.S. Department of State issued an alert Sunday warning Americans of a potential increase in anti-American violence globally. SU Abroad students in London received notices Monday about the heightened risk, said Jon Booth, executive director of SU Abroad.

Many countries where SU students study are sympathetic to 9/11, and given that most programs are nearing their end, it is unlikely that terrorist attacks will affect the students, he said. But students have run into spats with locals before.

‘I think that there were definitely anti-American sentiments during the height of the U.S. war in Iraq, and some of our students found themselves in arguments with local people about U.S. foreign policies,’ he said.

Beyond the rubble

Before the war in Iraq ever started, those who survived 9/11 tried to move on with their lives, only to find that the effects still lingered. Melanie Witkower’s father, who worked on the 34th floor of the second of the Twin Towers, escaped on 9/11 and crossed a bridge out of Manhattan on foot.

But a disease came with him. He developed a form of leukemia in 2006 called multiple myeloma, which he developed from toxic chemicals that spread during the building’s collapse. He continued to work in the city with severe lung damage until he died in 2008.

On Sunday, Witkower learned that the man who directed the attacks on her father’s office was dead.

‘Finding someone who led an army of people to kill your parents, or to kill a spouse, or to kill a sibling, it’s unimaginable,’ said the freshman television, radio and film major.

And even though bin Laden is gone, his death doesn’t close a book or make Witkower move on past 9/11, she said.

‘Nothing will necessarily make me move on past that day because it’s so vivid in my mind,’ she said. ‘But when I think of 9/11, I’m going to think of this day.’

Leaving a legacy

West of New York City, the 9/11 attacks hit close to home for Laura Beachy — 12 miles to be exact. That was the distance between her elementary school in Somerset, Pa., and the site of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash.

She was in sixth grade and had already watched a second plane strike the Twin Towers on a television in class. When she learned that Flight 93 had crashed near her small town — far from the chaos of Manhattan and the Pentagon — her classmates began to wonder if the whole country was completely under attack.

‘At that point it was pretty much controlled hysteria,’ said Beachy, a junior television, radio and film and anthropology major.

The crash forever changed her county and thrust it into the national spotlight. Residents welcomed the victims’ family members and placed them in hotels the days after 9/11. Beachy saw those who lost grandfathers, mothers, fathers and children. The emotional devastation still remains regardless of bin Laden’s death, she said.

‘Just the look of pain on their faces — and no matter what we do, that pain won’t go away — but I think it gives them resolution,’ Beachy said.

Nearly 10 years later, the town still talks about the crash every day, and the memorial stands as a symbol. During Beachy’s five years as a waitress in a local diner, she handed out nearly 200 papers that gave directions to the Flight 93 crash site.

But the lasting legacy of 9/11 stretches beyond the fields of Pennsylvania. For Adam Elrashidi, a first-year media studies graduate student and an Egyptian Muslim, that means bin Laden’s legacy on Muslims. Elrashidi said he hoped bin Laden’s death would lead to a different conversation about Muslims in America.

‘9/11 defined Islam and he defined Islam, when neither should’ve been the case,’ Elrashidi said. ‘We’ve unfortunately been trying to play catch-up trying to counteract the messages he’s presented these last 10 years.’

For those 10 years, the United States also tried to play catch-up on bin Laden’s whereabouts. His death proves the nation didn’t forget what it set out to do in the war, but he is still just one person, said Lt. Col. Susan Hardwick, a professor of military science.

‘Tomorrow the troops aren’t coming home from Afghanistan,’ she said. ‘They’re still going to be there.’

Sean Galloway, who fought in Iraq for eight months in 2005, said bin Laden’s death brings closure to what the troops have done overseas.

‘Going over there and fighting and coming back and knowing that he’s still out there, it was disturbing,’ said Galloway, who is also president of SU’s Student Veterans Club and a junior management major.

He expects terrorist attacks will continue, but he noted that bin Laden’s death is a huge blow to al-Qaeda’s network.

Mixed celebrations

Away from the fighting in the Middle East, the news of bin Laden’s death sprung many Americans into patriotic frenzies Sunday night. But not all students considered the festive actions to be appropriate. Elizabeth Holtan, a master’s graduate student in public relations, said it reflects badly on the United States in the eyes of the world when Americans celebrate the death of someone.

‘I was struck by the irony in the reactions from Americans,’ she said. ‘It seems very similar to the same actions that so many of us had denounced from the crowds in the Middle East.’

Holtan lived in northern Virginia during 9/11 and worried that her father, who worked at the Pentagon from time to time, was there when terrorists barreled American Airlines Flight 77 into the building. Luckily, Holtan’s father, who has worked with the U.S. Army for 20 years and is now the commandant of the U.S. Army School of Music, wasn’t at the Pentagon that fateful morning. But he knew people that were.

Patriotism and unity would fill the United States for a time after 9/11, only to slowly fade as the wars in the Middle East and search for bin Laden stretched on for years to come.

SU ROTC member Lindsey Connell remembers people questioning the war and why soldiers were there. But bin Laden’s death brought people together again amid negative press on the government and military, she said.

‘This was something so good that I think that the country really needed,’ said Connell, who will be stationed in Germany after she completes military police training in January.

Connell watched President Barack Obama’s announcement of the death at Chuck’s Café, where students pulled up chairs toward a large projection screen and watched silently as Obama spoke. After the speech, students erupted into ‘U.S.A.’ chants at various times throughout the night.

‘We saw a few people come in dressed up in red, white and blue, and everyone was cheering U.S.A.,’ Connell said. ‘It was awesome.’

But bin Laden’s death has not fully stitched the wounds of those who lost loved ones on 9/11. The death doesn’t give closure to Perez, the student whose father was killed in the Twin Towers. She wishes the United States would have kept bin Laden alive to get more intelligence from him, she said. But his death does provide some healing nearly a decade after the worst terrorist attacks on American soil.

‘It was a cruel death for him,’ Perez said. ‘It was a cruel death for the thousands that were lost on that day.’

mcboren@syr.edu

– Staff Writers Debbie Truong and Liz Sawyer contributed reporting to this article.  

Published on May 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm