Destruction, remembrance and heroism: A Recount of the aftermath of Sept. 11th

By Caroline O'Sullivan

Boston Police Officer Timothy C. O'Sullivan woke up just like any workday on Sept. 11, ready to prepare for duty, just as he had for the past 11 years unaware of what would happen.

 At 40, O'Sullivan worked countless hours to support his growing family of four, and soon to be five. His wife, Susan, was pregnant with their third child, who would be born in December.

 

While on active duty, O’Sullivan received a radio call about the attacks. Immediately, he called his wife to alert her of what happened. O’Sullivan said his wife was unaware of the attacks, and she was busy caring for their children under the age of 3.

 

Throughout the work day, O’Sullivan watched news clips that were broadcasted on the TV, getting as much information as he could.

 

Three weeks after the attack, O'Sullivan and his partners on the Boston Police Department traveled to New York City at the request of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to offer support.

 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is a joint venture that managed the World Trade Center, several New York and New Jersey airports, and rail systems.

 

"We were called to serve in a Peer Support System, where they would provide aid and relief to first responders," O'Sullivan said. "We helped officers, the Port Authority, firefighters, EMS, and even construction and ironworkers that were all on-site."

 

"First responders reported to site six days a week, anywhere from 12-14 hours a day to clean up debris. They were unable to leave post until another official physically reported to relieve them." O'Sullivan said. Our goal was to interact, talk, and provide counsel in any way possible, he said.

 

O'Sullivan and several Boston Police Department members worked 18 hour days for five days, reporting to different points of the 10-acre wreckage footprint. "It was the destruction of a caliber that I still have a difficult time describing to others," O'Sullivan said.

 

"There was an incredible smell of death, and Ground Zero was still burning," said O'Sullivan.

 

There were a few locations, including a docked boat that served as resting spots for crews to take a break, get off their feet, eat a snack, and take some time to decompress, O'Sullivan said.

 

O'Sullivan and the other Boston Officers split up between the locations of wreckage. O'Sullivan started in the Lincoln Tunnel, where he was badged up, given his credentials, and communicating with those at the site.

 

For the next four days, O'Sullivan was based at Ground Zero. He described it as an "intense, coordinated effort." Excavators and ironworkers were removing twisted steel, layers of dust that stood inches thick, and paper was everywhere.

 

At the end of each day, each member went through a specific decontamination process, removing their protective equipment covered in carcinogens. Vehicles at the site went through a car wash that was set up.

 

There were cars left in parking garages nearby, untouched, and covered in debris, O'Sullivan said. Nearby, there was a makeshift morgue where bodies and body parts were held.

 

When remains of the victims were recovered, the site's teams would stand in silence and salute in honor. Three chaplains accompanied the relief teams and would participate in prayer, said O'Sullivan.

 

One thing O'Sullivan remembers is the psychological toll the wreckage took not just to him, but other responders. 

 

"It was a difficult sight to see," O'Sullivan said.

 

"I saw a police officer, brand new to the force, guarding a Ground Zero wreckage point alone. Superiors told him to stand there and not allow anyone to enter. Staring at the burning site and what was being uncovered from the debris, all while being alone, can greatly impact a person." O'Sullivan said.

 

When asked how he believes the public views these attacks, O'Sullivan said it's all a "commitment to memory." 

 

"Unless you were directly affected by the attacks, or had an immediate connection to someone who was, it becomes a moment of history. People seem to forget about it and move on," he said.

 

When people visit the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, it's viewed by some as a tourist attraction than a site to remember the lost and sacrificed lives, he said. It is nobody's fault for thinking of it that way, but we need to remember that several thousands of people died that day." O'Sullivan said.

 

He said the public seems have forgotten about the attacks on Sept. 11. For the younger generations, some may have been too young or not even born when this occurred. It is easier for more youthful individuals to get caught up in daily life, put it into history books, and remember later, O’Sullivan said.

 

"I am unaware of how or if schools still address this event today, I question how much is remembered," O'Sullivan said. He believes that if schools hold moments of silences on Sept. 11, specifically around at the exact time of the attacks, it’s the right step to commemorate and honor the lives lost. 

 

It is challenging to have those conversations in classrooms, especially with young children. Still, the only way to stop forgetting is to discuss, and take time to remember what happened that day, O'Sullivan said.

 

O'Sullivan remembered when they excavated the sphere from Ground Zero. The globe was gold and black, and had some dents in the structure, said O'Sullivan. This sphere now stands in Liberty Park, overlooking the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

 

O'Sullivan called this sphere the gold globe. "The gold globe stood as a symbol of inspiration to press on and to continue our efforts of recovering remains and never to lose hope." said O'Sullivan.

 

 

(Sources with additional information regarding Koenig’s Sphere and the NY/NJ Port Authority were found via)

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/nyregion/911-memorial-sphere-sculpture.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Authority_of_New_York_and_New_Jersey

Ebooks Vs. Printed Books

By Nicole Bagala

While printed books remain statically popular, people, especially students, are drifting more towards using e-books than printed books in school.

According to a study from the Pew Research Center, printed books remain the most popular format for reading, with 65% of adults saying they had read a printed book in the year before the survey.

“Roughly seven-in-ten U.S. adults (72%) say they have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2012,” according to the Pew Research Center survey.

But while printed books remain popular worldwide, they are not as popular at Stonehill.

Because of COVID-19, Stonehill College has increased the number of online classes, which has increased the usage of e-books over printed books.

Stonehill freshman Sarah Walsh uses e-books for her classes due to how they make her academic experience easier.

“You can easily find a section or a specific sentence in an online textbook by typing it into a search bar,” said Walsh. “Also, some books allow you to make notes in the online textbook. If you are renting an actual book, you can’t write notes in it, but you can write in an online textbook.”

Walsh also said that using e-books results in less back pain since they eliminate students having to carry heavy textbooks around. But with all the perks that come with e-books, there are also disadvantages.

“If your laptop runs out of battery or you have no internet connection, then you won't be able to access the online textbooks,” said Stonehill junior Tucker Dow. “Also, staring at your computer screen a lot is not good for your eyes. And if you’re working on your computer and you have an e-book, it can be annoying going back and forth between tabs.”

And while a majority of Stonehill students prefer e-books, printed books do have some advantages of their own.

“You don’t have to rely on a device to access it. You have it right in front of you and you can read/do your work immediately,” said Stonehill freshman Priscilla Younes. “You can also bookmark pages in a textbook, which you can’t do on an e-book, and you can flip back to pages easily. And you can resell the textbooks afterwards in order to make some dough.”

However, while some students may purchase a printed textbook for their class, whether they use it or not remains a mystery.

“I don’t know if students use textbooks for my classes,” said Communications Professor Joni Dahlene-Gaudiello. “I've been told by the bookstore that some books come back to them still in the wrappers.”

But no matter which form people prefer, e-books and printed books are both important in their own way.

“I think both are important because they both reach different needs in the community,” said Nighttime Assistant Librarian Kyle Sousa. “You’re not going to find every book in both formats. They could just be either printed books or e-books, so it is important to have access to both. Some patrons might prefer e-books and others might prefer printed books, so we can’t just focus on one type of book.”

Both forms of textbooks can be used, but in the midst of COVID-19, e-books are more highly recommended.

“During the pandemic, using e-books makes more sense,” said Reference Liberian Joe Middleton. “During normal times the decision of which format to use should be based on the intended use of the book.”

Stanford Commit Forced to Change College Plans After the University Cancels Field Hockey Program

By Caroline Bunnell

Caylie McMahon thought she had her next four years perfectly planned out, until Stanford University made the decision to end their field hockey program. 

 

“A five-minute zoom call basically ended everything I had been signed up for since I was 15 years old, wanting to go to this school since I was 14,” she said. 

 

She said her love for field hockey began in the seventh grade, two years after quitting because she hated the sport. 

 

“I did it and actually ended up hating it, so I quit after one year and thought I’m never doing this again. I couldn’t stand it we, we lost every game, it was not fun for me,” she said. 

 

McMahon, 18, of Stow Massachusetts, attended Nashoba Regional High School and played on the field hockey and basketball teams for all four years. 

 

After years of playing basketball, McMahon said she became burnt out from the amount of time she spent playing on club teams, as well as the high school teams. 

 

“I loved basketball, and always wanted to play, but then got burnt out, and played it way too much,” she said. 

 

McMahon said her old coach reached out and asked if she wanted to play goalie at a tournament in Disney World. She said she agreed because she thought it would be a fun vacation for her family. 

 

Her family consists of her parents, Charlene and Liam, as well as her younger sister, Larissa. 

 

At the time of the tournament, McMahon said she didn’t think much of the sport but gave it another chance. 

 

“I ended up going and loving it, and then just stuck with it ever since. I love the competitiveness, and being a goalie is tough mentally, but I just loved playing. It’s a mix of reactions and quick movements, and just a lot of fun,” she said. 

 

She recalled how she started playing on junior varsity her freshman year and was the backup goalie which motivated her more to become better and earn the starting spot. 

 

McMahon said it was always difficult to balance her schoolwork, social life, and her commitments to multiple field hockey teams. 

 

Although it was difficult at times, she said it was worth it because of everything she was able to accomplish. 

 

McMahon said she was first selected to the U16 futures teams, which made her realize she could go far in her field hockey career. 

 

She said that following that, she moved up the ranks as a goalie, and eventually made the national team, where she was selected to the tour which travelled to Uruguay. This meant that she was one of the top two goalies in the country for her age group. 

 

McMahon said that up until July 8, her field hockey career was going perfectly.

 

McMahon remembered the day Stanford announced that they were ending the field hockey program as being one of the worst days of her life. 

 

“I still think that it actually broke me, it was awful,” she said. 

 

On July 8, she said the head of athletics at Stanford held a five-minute zoom call and said that the 11 sports who were on the call were going to be cut after the 2021 academic year. 

 

“I call my dad and I’m just screaming. I’m like, ‘what do I do?’. Then I called my club coach and asked her the same thing. I was just devastated,” she said.

 

“I am so grateful for this but I received more texts and calls that day than I ever have, I genuinely received over 80 phone calls and over 300 texts from random people, girls that I played with years ago because everyone knows the field hockey world is so small,” she said. 

 

She said that she decided to take a year off from school and commit to a different college for the 2021-2022 school year instead of going to Stanford.

 

McMahon said that she strongly considered going to Stanford for the education, but she has a dream of going to the Olympics in 2028, and she would have to continue to play field hockey to achieve this dream. 

 

“I am going to go to a different school next year and continue to play field hockey because my main goal is to make the Olympics someday. Being on the national team for three years, and being in the pipeline, is obviously a big help. This whole thing has made me want it even more to make the Olympic team in 2028,” she said. 

 

In what she described as a last-minute decision, she decided to spend the semester in London to stay with one of her Stanford teammates, and play on the best club team in all of Europe. 

 

“I am on the field in London with three girls who won the gold medal in the last Olympics for London. These girls are amazing, which is inspiring me to reach my dream of playing for Team USA,” she said. 

 

Despite the heartbreak she said she went through, McMahon said she feels like it was a blessing in disguise that she ended up going to London. 

 

“The best decision I’ve ever made has been coming here [London]. Stanford really broke me and people who knew me before compared to how I am after, can really honestly tell how bad it impacted me, but also in a great way at the same time,” she said. 

 

She said taking a gap year has allowed her to change her mindset.

 

“I’ve gone through so much emotion and mental growth, and although I am living with a family, I’m so independent,” she said. 

 

McMahon described how she was always a very stressed out person, and had to have everything planned, but that has changed since moving to London. 

 

“I was so worried about the next thing because my life was planned since I was 15. I was going to Stanford, relying I was going to get in, then start pre-season and have this great career,” she said. 

 

“Coming here, I have no plans. I’m so day by day and I actually live in the moment which is amazing,” she said. 

 

Recently, McMahon said she had another obstacle to overcome with her college field hockey career. 

 

She said that she was ready to commit to play field hockey at the University of Virginia, pending scholarship money. However, she said she received a call saying that with new NCAA rules being implemented, there was not enough scholarship money for her to be a part of the team. 

 

“So now this happened again to me, where the school I wanted to go to just isn’t working out and now I have to settle for two schools I don’t really want to go to,” she said

 

However, she said that she has learned to be more go with the flow, and not dwell on things for too long, or it will just become worse. 

 

“I could have chosen to have the worst day and dwell on it, but instead I had a day that I will actually never forget. I just learned that things are going to happen, but you just have to keep enjoying every little thing that comes your way,” she said. 

 

 

 

Recruiting During the Pandemic

By Christopher Cassidy

Mark Fields, a senior at Saint John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts is having a hard time showcasing his skills to colleges because of the pandemic. 

He can’t visit the schools that he wants to because of the Covid-19 rules schools are forced to follow and the camps he would go to where coaches can watch him play were all canceled. 

“I talked to a lot of players who lost their senior season like me and they plan to post-grad somewhere and play another year of high school football before committing to a college so they can have more film to show coaches recruiting,” said Fields. 

Fields doesn’t want to play the extra season but is finding that recruiting during the pandemic is a frustrating process. 

“Recruiting classes are being finished earlier than they have been previously because no one is waiting for anything,” he said about coaches who are recruiting.   

As a result, coaches are not reaching out to some players because they have not seen them play. 

According to NCSA Sports there has been a 17 percent increase in college coaches searching for recruits.  

There has also been a 26% increase in email opens sent from recruits to college coaches during the pandemic. 

This shows how many more students were being recruited due to the pandemic and how much recruits were reaching out to coaches. 

Fields went on virtual college tours of campuses but said it is not the same as being on a campus and the cancelation of “Junior Days” also hurt. 

Junior days in the football recruiting process is when a college invites hundreds of recruits to the campus to tour the school, show players around the athletic facility, and work the player out on the field so coaches can get a better look at a recruit first hand. 

Overnight visits on campus are also a large piece of recruiting for programs, it gives the recruit a day and night to experience the campus, and spend time with the people and the players on the team.  

“If I go there, I want to know what the people are like,” he said. 

Head Coach Eli Gardner of Stonehill College said Junior Days are important to college programs.  

In Division 2, players who attend Junior Days can then showcase their skills in a prospect camp. 

When Stonehill canceled its in person Junior Day, Coach Gardner hosted a virtual Junior Day offering a virtual campus tour and this spring sent out 300 invitations for another virtual Junior Day. 

 Gardner said while Stonehill can highlight the beauty of the campus, recruits deserve to have that real experience but it is difficult to do in this pandemic.  

“We have the overnight visits where our players will host a recruit for the night and take him to dinner in the dining commons and spend the night there,” said Gardner. 

Gardner said the players on the team play a key role in recruiting because they are the guys who the recruits will be playing with.  

 Gardner said coaches now have to trust the film recruits send and the numbers that matter, like lifting numbers and a player's height and weight. 

This is a different situation for a Division 1 recruit looking to play Division 1 football in college. 

 Matt Ragan, a reclassed junior at Lawrence Academy, is a division 1 football recruit who just committed to play football at Boston College. 

Ragan also couldn’t showcase his skills to coaches over the summer because camps were canceled and schools set restrictions on recruiting.  

Ragan is the fifteenth ranked tight end recruit in the nation and losing his junior season this year because of the pandemic prevented him from sending video of games to send out to programs. 

When he sent out his sophomore year film, Division 1 programs offered Ragan scholarships right away. 

He received interest from Michigan State, Boston College, Pitt, and Duke.  Because the schools couldn’t meet him in person, they contacted him other ways, such as by phone. 

“It was me trying to get as much information about the schools as possible,” Matt said regarding the phone calls with coaches. 

Ragan did not attend any virtual tours and did not have many Zoom encounters during recruiting.  

The only school that went on Zoom was Boston College where he met with the entire coaching staff, a big part in his decision to go to Boston College.  

The hardest part for Ragan was he could not meet in person with the coaches and see the schools.  

Ragan was already familiar with BC because his brother, Sean Ragan, played four seasons with the team.  

Ragan knew coaches wanted players to commit early because of the pandemic and he did it quickly. 

 “For my position, every school takes one to two players per recruiting class,” Ragan said about recruiting.  

 He said he would have waited but the pandemic changed that. 

“I don’t think I would’ve committed this early,” Matt said. 

Josh Ligor, a sophomore at Bridgewater State University, played football his freshman year at Stonehill College before transfering. 

He had a hard time figuring out what he wanted to do, and decided that attending a different school would be best for him. 

When he decided he was transferring from Stonehill College, he was put into what is known as the “Transfer Portal,” where college football players go when they want to transfer and they are allowed to be recruited by other colleges. 

“March and April are popular months for Division 3 recruiting and when I entered the portal, it was right when the pandemic became serious,” Ligor said. 

Ligor had multiples contacts with schools as soon as he entered the portal because some were recruiting him prior to his commitment to Stonehill. 

He said there were no Zoom meetings and only phone calls with coaches and text messages. 

“All coaches would stay in contact, some more than others,” Ligor said.  

He said he was sent virtual tours of the campuses, because he was not able to visit the school itself, and he would get videos of the team practicing to help him understand the program. 

“If I was given the opportunity for in person workouts, I think I would have had more options to choose from,” he said. 

He thinks in person contact influences a recruiting class a lot because coaches will know what the player can do. 

After choosing to commit to Bridgewater State, he said his coaches stayed in close contact with him to prepare him for fall workouts. 

Ligor said he was unable to meet his new teammates due to the pandemic and when he walked into his first workout, he felt out of place a bit. 

“My first time meeting everybody was at the first fall workout,” said Ligor 

He said he is happy with where he is at now and looks forward to his future with the team.