Personal Views

Oberlin College Students

Lily Matini '03

Good afternoon fellow students and distinguished faculty. My name is Lily Monir Matini, and I’m junior at Oberlin College. We’ve been gathered here today to discuss Islam and Middle East politics. I was invited to speak here, just a couple days ago (so I apologize in advance if my thoughts seem disorganized convoluted). I’m here to provide a perspective that is not of the majority on this campus, in our nation or abroad. I was born in the United States, but my entire family is Iranian. This is not to say my entire family is Muslim. In fact few of the members of the family subscribe to any religion, and those few practicing Muslims don’t do everything by the book. I am not Muslim, my father is not Muslim and my mother is not Muslim. But I was once Muslim, some of my close friends and loved ones are Muslims, and I know that the Taliban and Islamic fanatics do not speak for all Muslim people or are representative of the religion of Islam....Read more.

Jeffrey and Jane Leemhuis -- Parents of Kathryn Leemhuis '05

As the parents of a new Oberlin freshman, it is heartening to us to see the support the College is giving to its community to help all individuals cope with the recent, unprecedented attacks on our country and our world communities. Unlike in previous attacks the United States has experienced in which we were able to identify the attackers and whom they represented, the events of September 11 do not expose or help us easily identify a specific "enemy" or "enemy force." ...Read more.

Thomas Klutznick, Chairman of the Oberlin College Board of Trustees

The world is a very different place than when we last met. As for this great nation, it is forever changed--and no longer innocent. For decades we have been horrified witnesses to the work of terrorists around the globe; now they have brought their atrocities to our shores, and thousands of our citizens are victims of a perverted and murderous interpretation of one of the world's great religions. The depth of our mourning is only matched by the depth of our resolve to find and punish those who are responsible. ...Read more.

Behrad Mahdi '04

I was both born and raised in the United States, and as such I am an American first and foremost. My parents, who were born, raised, and spent most of their formative years in Iran, represent the first generation of each other's families to come to America and begin their lives. So, its not surprising to most that although I am a proud American, I cling tightly to the cultural heritage and ethnic background that I have had the pleasure of being raised in. It is from this point of view that I share my reflections on this tragedy and what its impacts on Middle Eastern and Muslim immigrants in the United States. ...Read more.

I pulled two night shifts on Tuesday and Wednesday answering telephones at the hospital where I work. Seven other certified social workers and myself teamed up each shift to field inquiries from families trying to locate their missing loved ones. Because there was no accessible centralized hospitalization information available to families during the first two days of the crisis, they had to repeatedly call each hospital to ask whether their relatives had come to the ER. ...Read more.

My husband, two children and I are okay. We are just all extremely saddened and anxious. Our house is about 10 minutes away from the Pentagon--we live off Seminary Road and I-395 and frequently travel both roads which go directly by the building. We are learning of experiences from our friends and colleagues. One parishoner in the church where I am director of music was in the Pentagon for a meeting when the plane hit. She was on the river side and they did not even feel the impact. At one point, someone came into the meeting and told them to evacuate toward the river and said only that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. It was only as they exited the building and looked up that they saw the plume of smoke and realized that something else had happened. ...Read more.

Thank you so much for your concern....I worked at the New Executive Building right across the street from the White House, and we were evacuated on time. Thank goodness. ...Read more.

The following is the text of a speech that I gave at a Community Response Forum on September 19 in Santa Cruz, California...

"Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming tonight to listen, to talk, to share, simply to be together in these difficult times. Thanks also to those who found a way, with very little time, to bring us together. That we are here together is, I believe, the great gift...we are still a democracy...as we struggle to make sense of the tragic events of September 11, and to find a way out of darkness into the light. Thich Nhat Hanh's words echo in my mind every day: 'There is no way to peace, peace is the way.' Let us be peaceful tonight as we talk and listen to each other." ...Read more.

Thanks for your letter of concern for Oberlin alumni. We also appreciated President Dye's comforting letter and your Oberlin Reacts web site. Our family near and far are all well and safe. Ginny ('44) and I ('41) were on an Atlantic coast cruise on the Norwegian Sea and had made our first stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, when we heard (and saw on CNN) the horrible news about the terrorists' attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. ...Read more.

I had been counting down to September 11 for over three months. That was the day that my candidate was going to win the Congressional district primary. I had been getting sparse amounts of sleep and working 18-hour days. Sept 11 was going to be great--we would win, and then I could go to bed. It was also my mother's birthday, and after I got up at 5 a.m., got my poll checkers to their precincts, and cast my vote, I stopped at home quickly to call her. It was 9:20 a.m. She asked me if I had heard about the plane crashing, and I had, but like so many others I got an image of a small plane that took a wrong turn. I had an election to run, so I wished her well and went on with my day. ...Read more.

Twenty years ago, in the richness of Oberlin's diversity, I became a Buddhist and a peace activist. Each day, I still am. Although I have friends and colleagues who lost friends in Tuesday's attack on the Towers, and I have dedicated almost half my time to providing support since then, Tuesday was really no different than any other day. Yes, the death scenes on TV were more horrific than any since Kosovo. But it was merely a moment when TV was a bit more honest about the violence in the world than usual. ...Read more.

Here in Geneva, Switzerland, we are all praying that the US government can be held back from the violent acts of vengeance being threatened by the President. Those of us who believe that this can only lead to further retaliation, acts of war, deaths of innocent persons and alienation among the world's peoples should make our views known, in the best Oberlin tradition. ...Read more.

Sam Chung '00

I had three friends pass away in the WTC, and two that barely escaped from the crashing rubble. It all seems so surreal, but the grief and tears are real. Several days after the bombings, you could smell the burnings wafting up from southern Manhattan to Harlem. Sorrow was truly in the air. I was driving home yesterday from Long Island into Manhattan and saw the plume of smoke still hanging dreadfully over Southern Manhattan and the tears and tiredness started anew. Memories of my friends that passed are all that I have now. ...Read more.