Dale Tahtinen reminded listeners at the Sept. 11 memorial dedication that this is not the first time America has faced an amorphous foe in a battle with no end in sight.

"President John F. Kennedy once said that America was engaged in a 'long, twilight struggle' in confronting another menace," said Tahtinen, the vice president for governmental relations. "We may well be on the threshold of yet another 'long, twilight struggle' against terrorism. It is an enemy whose membership transcends national boundaries. It lurks in the shadows, assumes false identities, and is very, very patient."

America is a democracy that tolerates differing philosophies, political beliefs and religions, Tahtinen told a crowd that included State Senator Don Koivisto, State Rep. Richard Brown, Sheri Davie (representing U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow), and numerous local and University officials. The events of one year ago were "a clash of the philosophical underpinnings of America with a form of zealotry, religious and political fanaticism that is alien to our beliefs."

Free societies everywhere are challenged by these fanatics, Tahtinen said." But every challenge, as someone once said, is an opportunity in disguise." He told of the Connecticut House of Representatives, which, on May 19, 1790, was thrown into darkness during a solar eclipse.

"And the skies at noon turned to gray, then to a deep black, with threatening sounds from the sky. It was as dark as midnight," he said. Some representatives fell to their knees, others panicked and called for adjournment.

"But the speaker of the house, Colonel Davenport, gaveled the House back to order, and then spoke these words:
"The day of judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I for one choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles be brought."

Americans are the kind of people who now ask that "candles be brought," Tahtinen said. "We will go about the business of our daily lives and do what we can to preserve, protect, and defend our precious Constitution.

"If we do that, I assure you, we will prevail over these forces of darkness and tyranny."

At the memorial dedication, Army and Air Force ROTC cadets opened the ceremonies by raising a flag that had hung over Ground Zero; they later lowered it to half-staff in honor of the thousands who died in the attacks. Local police and firefighters laid wreaths at the site in memory of their counterparts who perished on Sept. 11. And undergraduate Sharif Wilson placed a wreath below the flag in honor of his uncle LeRoy Homer, a copilot on United Airlines Flight 93, which went down one year ago in a Pennsylvania field.