I noticed a lot of letters condemning Chancellor Wiley’s decision to not cancel classes. These authors ignore the purpose of terrorism. These horrible people orchestrated this attack in an attempt to rip apart our nation. The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize a nation and its people. By continuing our lives, going to class and playing football, we show these terrorists that this act did not fully succeed.

My uncle works in the Pentagon. I did not know if he was alive or not. If I had sat at home alone watching the TV, I would have gone crazy. But by getting out to class for an hour, I was able to talk to others and get my mind off of this tragedy for a moment or two. That is why keeping classes available to us was a good choice. Many of my classes did speak about the incident, teachers offered their shoulder to cry on and we held several moments of silence for the victims.

Just because I went to class and even attempted to study in the past few days does not mean I am not compassionate. It means that I will not change the way I live and the way I see America.

I thank Chancellor Wiley for keeping classes on this Tuesday. In the end, those who did this heinous crime will pay for what they have done. America will prevail.