“How does one begin to talk about a tragedy of such magnitude?” began the Lebanon Daily News editorial on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001.
Paul Baker was a week into his job as managing editor, already a 22-year-old veteran of the News and recently its city editor.
Former News reporter John Latimer said he was still at home when the World Trade Center towers were hit on Tuesday, Sept. 11.
“When I saw it I had no doubt it was deliberate,” said Latimer. “I went directly to work, a 5-minute drive, where Paul Baker and Karol Gress were in the process of changing the front page.”
It was a baptism by fire, Baker said.
“I remember the whole company was in the newsroom that morning, watching the only TV in the house,” said Baker.
The Daily News, printed in the morning and delivered in the afternoon, was one of the few papers to cover the event in its Tuesday edition on Sept. 11, 2001.
“We knew it was the moment,” said Latimer. “You go on autopilot.”
It was one of two times Latimer remembers a literal “stop the presses” moment, the other was the Saturday evening – Aug. 31, 1997 – when Diana, Princess of Wales, died.
“I was so proud of our editorial staff getting a front page out on Sept. 11,” said Latimer. “One of the few newspapers in the country that managed that.”
Latimer said he remembers decompressing on his stoop, arriving home around 11 p.m. after a day full of coverage – he would have five bylines in the Sept. 12 edition.
Coverage included a report about prayer services at Lebanon Valley College’s Miller Chapel and Lebanon’s St. Paul the Apostle Church; on-the-street reactions from Lebanon locals; a Salvation Army truck loaded in Myerstown for a convoy into Manhattan; an interview with Lebanon native Bill Funck, who was living in Manhattan; and an evacuation of the Lebanon County prison over a bomb scare.
“Last night … as families huddled in living rooms across the Lebanon Valley to listen to the unfolding news coverage and try to come to some comprehension of the enormity of the day’s events, it began to feel as if we all – all Americans – are family,” wrote the News in the editorial.
In the days and weeks that followed, the paper’s pages were full of clothing and blood drives and prayer vigils.
“We all stood up and met the moment,” said Latimer of the newsroom’s efforts that day.
A personal reflection
Your LebTown editor was a middle school student at Cedar Crest on Sept. 11.
He remembers early chatter in Het and Um’s first-period gym class; recalls accessing NYT, or was it CNN, on a classroom computer, net access still novel.
An event imprinted deeply on his consciousness as for some (all?) Americans.
An adult today, a father, an appreciation and unknowingness about what it must have been like to be an educator that bright and dark day in the Lebanon Valley.
A question posed to now-superintendent of Cornwall-Lebanon, Dr. Phil Domencic, then-principal of Cedar Crest Middle School. How did you navigate that day? What did you tell students, teachers, parents?
Domencic said their reaction was shock, like everyone else – at first wondering if it might have been a terrible accident, then the realization that it wasn’t.
25 years ago, well before every student might have a cellphone, texting, and messaging apps, information came primarily through traditional media channels: TV, radio, maybe a phone call.
Domencic said school administrators first made sure that students were safe on the campus, and also to reassure students. Particularly in the middle school, a couple grades could make a vast difference in a student’s ability to understand what was happening – compare a 6th grader to an 8th grader.
The school didn’t dismiss early that day, but a large number of students, in the hundreds, were picked up during the day by parents. Domencic said counselors were available throughout the day and educators were watching for unique situations, ties to New York, ties to the military, etc.
Domencic said that, as a country, we were all just trying to figure it out. An attack on American soil. Columbine still a recent memory.
“We had to really think on our feet back then,” said Domencic. “Sadly, we’ve become prepared for those types of things.”
It was an incredibly tragic time, he said, and it led to an incredible amount of unity in this country. It didn’t last long, but unity gave a sense of hope, he said.
“Everyone’s normal lives were just completely knocked off course,” said Domencic.
Friday, on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the district high school and middle school will hold recognitions at 8:46 a.m.; elementary schools will hold their version of a recognition at 10:03 a.m.
Domencic said all the sacrifices, and the bravery of the people who responded – many of whose stories we only learned much later – are why it’s important to remember the events of that day each year, but particularly on this anniversary.
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