9-11 victim and
U-M alumnus
Josh Rosenthars
legacy lives on
in lecture series.
U-M President Mary Sue
Coleman and Dr. Marilynn
Rosenthal greet well-wishers at
the Josh Rosenthal lecture.
DIANA LIEBERMAN
Aft e r
Union, Dr. Marilynn Rosenthal said that her son — well-
educated and unafraid of risks — left behind much unfin-
ished business.
"Our country has a lot of unfinished business — shap-
ing its role in the world, shaping its fight against terror-
ism, shaping a strategy to achieve a more equitable world,"
said Dr. Rosenthal, a U-M Dearborn sociology professor
and adjunct professor in the university's department of
internal medicine.
Copy Editor/Education Writer
1.1
Ann Arbor
ow has America changed since 9-11?
A three-part lecture at the University of •
Michigan explored the topic as the inaugural
event of the Josh Rosenthal Education Fund
at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Held on Sept. 11, 2002, the event was the first of an
annual lecture series to be sponsored by the endowment
fund, which also will underwrite research and student
internships,
More than 500 people crowded into the university's
Michigan Union for presenta-
tions by Air Force Gen. Brent
E _. Scowcroft, national security
adviser for Presidents Ronald
.ii Reagan and George H.W. Bush;
c
>. Dr. Marina Whitman, U-M
professor of public policy and
business administration; and Dr.
2 David Featherman, director of
U-M's Institute for Social
Research.
But the event, titled "One
Year After: Changes in Policy,
Politics and Public Attitudes
Since Sept. 11, 2001," was more
than an academic exercise. It
was also an opportunity to cele-
brate the life of Josh Rosenthal
and 17 other U-M graduates
who perished on 9-11.
Joshua Allen Rosenthal, who graduated from U-M in
1979 with a bachelor's degree in political science, worked
on the 94th floor of the south tower of the World Trade
Center.
A senior vice president at Fiduciary Trust
Co. International, he also served as treasurer
of the New York-based charity Food for
Survival, and was on the U-M Investment
Advisory Committee.
Josh, at 44, left behind his mother, Dr.
Marilynn Rosenthal of Ann Arbor; father,
Avram "Skip" Rosenthal of Farmington; sis-
ter Helen Rosenthal of New York City, and
two nieces.
While the Ann Arbor memorial lectures
were taking place, Helen Rosenthal held her
own memorial at home with daughters
Madeline, 9, and Alexandra, 6, and guests.
Alexandra celebrated her uncle's life by serv-
ing his favorite ice cream. Then, the family
selected the type of bench to be installed in
Central Park in Josh's memory.
In addition, Skip Rosenthal, visiting New
York, went to Ground Zero.
In her welcoming speech at the Michigan
A Sea Change
-
Gen. Scowcroft said the events of Sept. 11 had wrought a
sudden and cataclysmic change in the relationship of the
United States to the rest of the world.
He called the George W Bush administration immedi-
ately before 9-11 "a time of significant drift" in foreign
policy.
"We tended to treat foreign policy more like a charity
— we could give or not give as we wanted," he said.
"There was no close inquisition as to what was going on
in the world."
The United States considered terrorism "a problem of
regionalism, of special issues. It was something that hap-
pened elsewhere — we were protected by our two
oceans."
After 9-11, many of the-earlier strategies had to be
modified to court some countries we'd ignored or passed
over, a change Scowcroft said wouldn't have happened
without 9-11.
Russia, which the U.S. had treated as "irrelevant," had
experience with Afghanistan and China. Pakistan, slighted
in favor of India, suddenly became critical to this country's
war against the Taliban.
"There's no way we can do it ourselves," he said.
One World
Following Scowcroft at the podium, Dr. Whitman, a for-
mer vice president of General Motors, spoke about the
challenges of globalization.
"Economically and financially, the world is pulling
together rather than apart," she said.
The United States has learned "social and economic
development in poor countries does affect us," Dr.
Whitman said. And terrorists are just as much part of
globalization as economic development and foreign aid."
Dr. Featherman concluded the program by summariz-
ing the work done by the. U-M Institute for Social
Research on changes in public perceptions since 9-11.
Although America's sense of optimism was damaged,
although people feel less safe than before the terrorist
attacks, the country's psyche is slowly healing, he said.
The attacks "brought us together in new ways," Dr.
Featherman said. As an example, he said that, "compared
to studies from the 1980s on, we show a much greater
approval for inclusion" of people who are of different
racial, socio-economic and religious backgrounds.
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