Sept. 11 is a day etched in everyone’s minds. Ask anyone where they were when the first plane crashed in 2001, and you are sure to hear many stories and memories.

The day will not be forgotten by those who lived through it, but the lessons learned can often be tossed among the pile of all the others.

Grief, loss, pain and suffering are emotions that usually override anything else people might be experiencing, and there is a time for these emotions.

Guards at the Santa Rosa Correctional Institution in Northwest Florida shut off the water to inmate Danny Brown’s cell at 3 p.m. June 11, 2002. At the same time, guards outside taped the window so nothing could escape – including Brown. Then the guards released chemical gasses into the cell.

Brown, a bi-polar inmate, suffered an asthma attack, breathing difficulties and mental and emotional pain from the gassing, according to the lawsuit he filed the following year with 21 other prisoners at the correctional institution.

Among the principles laid by the founding fathers of our country is the right to remain innocent until proven guilty when under accusation.

And while athletes and other celebrities in the public eye are often kept to higher standards than the average citizen, it does not mean they lose their basic rights.

“Support our Troops” is a phrase that no longer needs mention in this country, as the ideal has become one of the golden tenants of new-American patriotism – a nationalistic effort enacted, presumably, the day the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.

This statement is undeniably agreed upon – to the extent the creed has been printed on every type of magnet, flag and T-shirt imaginable, and donned by Americans and naturalized citizens of all types.

Saturday morning – intense boredom, and you haven’t a clue how to fix it. You don’t have the gas money to drive anywhere off campus. You spent Friday night at the game room. The library is too quiet. It’s a no-go for the Arena. Your bathing suit and gym clothes are in the wash.

Think a little harder; fun is right across the street. Indeed, those woods you drive by everyday hold more than just trees.