The Daily OrangeRemembrance scholar urges students to learn more about Pan Am victims
By Letter to the editor
Posted: 11/12/09, 12:38 AM EST Section: Opinion
Although we are 21 years apart, and literally worlds apart, Kesha Weedon and I are spiritually connected. Both slave descendants living in modern day America, we have used our religion and faith to succeed beyond what our parents and grandparents ever imagined. Kesha and I leaned on faith to study abroad, a new experience that is quite unheard of in our communities. The sad part is that Kesha didn't survive to tell her family about her life-changing experience. Even though she is not here on Earth, I feel a strong connection every time I look at her face. I thought of her when her convicted killer was allowed to leave prison early, after serving only eight years. Would she force me to be a good Christian, and learn to forgive? Or was his crime and release beyond forgiveness?
During the fall of 1988, Kesha Weedon traveled to London as part of Syracuse University's study abroad program. She was one of the 35 Syracuse University students who were killed as a result of the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist attack. On Dec. 21, 1988, the students boarded the plane in London and were about to cross the Atlantic Ocean when a bomb detonated and the plane exploded in mid-air. News reports state the plane came crashing down in pieces within a matter of seconds over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people on the plane were killed, as well as 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie. Pan Am Flight 103 was the largest terrorist attack against the United States before 9/11.
After an intense international investigation, Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was accused of putting the bomb on the plane. In 2001, he was convicted of the heinous crime, thirteen years after the initial attack. In October of 2008, the Libyan government paid $1.5 billion to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks. In the meantime, al-Megrahi appealed his case once and dropped the second appeal after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. On Aug. 20, 2009, the Scottish government decided to release him on "compassionate grounds." He served eight years of his life sentence, even though he was convicted of killing 270 people.
During the fall of 1988, Kesha Weedon traveled to London as part of Syracuse University's study abroad program. She was one of the 35 Syracuse University students who were killed as a result of the Pan Am Flight 103 terrorist attack. On Dec. 21, 1988, the students boarded the plane in London and were about to cross the Atlantic Ocean when a bomb detonated and the plane exploded in mid-air. News reports state the plane came crashing down in pieces within a matter of seconds over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people on the plane were killed, as well as 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie. Pan Am Flight 103 was the largest terrorist attack against the United States before 9/11.
After an intense international investigation, Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was accused of putting the bomb on the plane. In 2001, he was convicted of the heinous crime, thirteen years after the initial attack. In October of 2008, the Libyan government paid $1.5 billion to compensate the families of American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks. In the meantime, al-Megrahi appealed his case once and dropped the second appeal after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. On Aug. 20, 2009, the Scottish government decided to release him on "compassionate grounds." He served eight years of his life sentence, even though he was convicted of killing 270 people.
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