Tuesday morning looked more like a nuclear winter than the hustle and bustle we’re supposed to see in lower Manhattan.

Hundreds of miles removed, safe within the ivy covered walls of campus, we watched in horror as the scene was replayed throughout the day. Some of us gasped, some cried; all of our hearts sank at the sight.

Planes crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The smoke and dust as the colossal building collapsed on itself.

Another airliner hits the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. A fourth crashes in Pennsylvania.

From nowhere - from anywhere - the United States is attacked. Helpless, we watch.

Terrorism struck our nation Tuesday in a way the Cold War never had. Four hijacked planes turned into weapons more fierce than the surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The skyline of the United States will forever be different.

“Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and I assure you freedom will be defended,” President Bush said, a somber look on his face. “Make no mistake. The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly actions.”

We echo our president’s vigilance and stand behind his response to this attack on U.S. soil. He has vowed these cowards will be held accountable for the hundreds of lives lost in four airliners - and for the thousands who died in New York and our nation’s capital.

But until that day comes, we choose not to hate the world - or be afraid to live our lives and love our loves.

When we see the images of one of the world’s tallest buildings crumbling - knowing it could be our friends, our family inside - that sick feeling will stir in our stomachs. Tears will run down our faces.

Our buildings may be destroyed and our sense of safety may be broken, but as Americans, our ideals are not as easily torn down.

Our spirit remains strong. And in that, the terrorists who sacrificed thousands of innocent lives Tuesday have failed. Buildings crumble, cities are paralyzed and hearts are broken. But it is not buildings that define us. It is not a city - even our largest - that makes us who we are.

We are bigger than this event.

Broken hearts will plague us for years. While buildings can be rebuilt and roads will be cleared, the fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and lovers who were lost Tuesday cannot be replaced. But their spirits - those are not gone.

This did not happen to one person, one race, one group. It happened to us all. It was not an attack on two buildings, it was an attack on our entire country.

But we, as a people, are stronger than steel and concrete, and those of us who are momentarily weaker than the rest can borrow the strength of the stronger. We will not be destroyed, ruined or broken.

We will not turn on our own. We will not take advantage of those already devastated, we will support one another. And somehow, someday we will survive.

Like our parents who remember where they were when John F. Kennedy was shot and our grandparents remember Pearl Harbor, we will always remember this terrible day in U.S. history.

And then - sometime in the future - the streets of Manhattan will once again bustle with activity.