SBCC Flag Lowering Ceremony in Remembrance of 9/11

My name is Atty and I’m the Student Body President here at Santa Barbara City College,
thank you all for coming. Later on, we’re going to be reading the names of the California
victims of the September 11th attacks, and afterwards, I’d like to ask everybody ahead
of time to please observe a moment of silence while our flags are lowered. And please, in
your own hearts, remember that people that were alive are no longer alive.
Cato the Elder lived from 234 - 149 BC. He’s thought to be one of the greatest minds our
world has ever seen, and he is quoted as having said, “After I am dead, I’d rather have
people ask why no monument was made to me than why I have one.” I’d like to take
that for a moment, take that thought and expand on it. What is a fitting monument for the
everyday people who have been loved and were killed on 9/11? Is it a reflecting pond at
ground zero? Two beams of light where the World Trade Centers once stood? Is it a house
of worship? Or is it that someone remembers that they were alive? We record our history
and we say it’s for the sake of posterity, but perhaps we just that we want the future
people to know we were once here. What is a fitting memorial for a secretary who was
a working mom who went to work that day? For a custodian who emptied trash in a business
building and that’s his only crime – was that he was there. For a political staffer
on their way to the Pentagon for the first time? What about a plane full of people who
had enough spunk to fight back when somebody said they were going to take over? I say Cato
had the right idea. A structure isn’t enough and it feels kind of vain. But perhaps remembering
people inside of our own hearts is enough. It is the utmost importance that we remember
those who have died. And that we appreciate that they were here – even if only for a
short time. So please take a moment to be a living monument to those who are gone, those
you know are gone and their lives were cut short. Take time to remember that 2,741 Californians
were here…excuse me, 2,741 people were here.
Join me in welcoming City Councilman Grant House.
[Applause]