Saturday marks two decades since the Boeing aircraft struck the twin towers, forever changing the lives of United States citizens. Professors recalled their lives during that time, and how they reacted to the attack on 9/11.

Kevin Anderson, who has a doctorate in political science and government, is the instructor of American government, political theory, and African American politics.

“9/11 was a complete shock. I was in graduate school writing my doctoral dissertation when it happened,” Anderson said.“The fear and anxiety of those days was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. We as a nation had been attacked and we felt vulnerable in a way that we hadn’t before.”

Anderson also had some remarks to make on 9/11’s effects on the nation over the years.

“It doesn’t feel like it has been twenty years, but it also doesn’t feel like it was yesterday either. Some effects of 9/11 are constant like enhanced airport security, and others are subtle like surveillance of phone/email records, but they are always there.Time changes how we remember things, but I think Americans still remember the fear and the unity of the days after 9/11,” said Anderson.

Thomas MacMullen, who has a master’s in computer technology, is an instructor in the School of Technology at Eastern.

“I was working at the time. I was working in Bloomington,” said MacMullen. “I was driving from Charleston to Bloomington,and I had Mancow on, he was a radio personality, Mancow Muller. The Mancow show was on, and he was talking with his staff about how they were gonna play a prank on the people who came in at the next hour. So, when they started talking about the planes hitting the buildings, I thought it was a joke. I didn’t think anything of it until I actually arrived at work.”

MacMullen also had some comments on how it feels like a long time since 9/11 happened.

“It seems like a lifetime ago. Obviously, when you hit these anniversaries, it tends to resonate. But looking back, it feels like a whole other life. I think it still lives in the forefront of American memory. I think it is still an event that brings of a lot of sorrow and hurt. We always said we’re never gonna forget it, and we never have,” MacMullen said.

Ethan Schobernd can be reached at 581-2812 or at ejschobernd@eiu.edu.