Linda Euto was working at Channel 10 News in Albany when she heard that the Pan Am Flight 103 had crashed. She quickly found out that one of her childhood friends, Wendy Lincoln, had been on the plane.

Euto was asked by Channel 10 to go to Lincoln’s house to do a story. When Euto arrived at the house, Lincoln’s mother slammed the door in her face.

Euto sat on a panel with religion professor Biko Gray and geography professor Timur Hammond to discuss trauma and terrorism at Slocum Hall on Monday night. The panel, “Overcoming the Traumas of Terrorism,” was held as part of Remembrance Week, a campus initiative to honor the 270 victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.

“Back in 1988 you didn’t think (that Pan Am Flight 103) was terrorism. That word wasn’t a part of our vocabulary,” said Euto, now an associate director for research and evaluation at Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

The panel was moderated by Karen Hall, the assistant director of civic engagement and academic advising for the Renée Crown University Honors Program. She began the program by asking audience members to share one of their identities with those around them.

One of the goals of the panel, Hall said, was to make it as interactive as possible.

“These stories touch all of us with different degrees of connection and separation, but they do indeed touch all of us,” she said.

Hall then asked the panelists to define terrorism.

Hammond said he often has reservations about using the term terrorism as a category to think about the world. The concept, he said, relies on an “us versus them” mentality.

Euto said terrorism is a personal concept that is different for everyone. To her, terrorism is deeper than fear, she said. It involves a loss of independence and innocence, she added.

One way to heal from trauma, Gray said, is to sit with one another to support and hold others up in the face of trauma.

Acknowledging and perceiving forms of violence that are inflicted upon others is a beginning step to understanding the relationship between violence and trauma, Hammond said.

The audience participated throughout the panel, both through Hall’s questions and questions asked by audience members.

Audience members asked questions and told stories about experiencing and discussing terrorism on campus.

In response to a question of how to handle and fight against terror felt on campus, Gray said the first thing a person can do is develop a community. He said it is important to find people who care about similar issues not only for protection, but to build love and solidarity between each other.

Casey Zbierski, a freshman economics major, said she thinks that people find it difficult to speak with strangers whose backgrounds and mentalities are different.

Lockerbie Scholar Abigail Covington said people with agency and power in a situation should help create spaces for others who cannot do so themselves.

“I have an expectation that the people around me should be saying something,” she said.

At the end of the panel, Hall told audience members to think about how individuals have affected their own lives.

Published on October 30, 2018 at 12:08 am

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