Terror on the Walk ways of Brigham Young University

Terrorism sometimes hits close to home....

Today as I was settling in for the evening, my roomate Alan Niel Rosenhan, esq. jumped up and shouted from the adjacent room, "Cory! want to help the police interpret some arabic?!?"

Naturally, indeed almost instinctively, I pulled on my pants and tripped out the door grabbing my Hanz Wehr Dictionary of Arabic on the way.

Alan (an Arabic 102 student) and myself (an Arabic 202 student) waited on the corner of University Avenue and 940 N. in Provo at about 22:45 hours (in the pm) until a sleek Provo City Police car pulled up to the curb. We looked around to make sure there were no terrorists watching, and quickly and quietly slipped into the vehicle.

The officer briefed us on the way, occasionally interrupted by the police radio.

"We recieved a call of suspicious Arabic writing on the sidewalk on the south side of the HCB. A concerned student called it in, so we are going to go check it out."

My heart was racing. I couldn't believe I was really a part of an actual investigation of a terror threat here in Utah. I waited patiently as the police officer wound his way through the roads on 800 North and eventually onto the campus sidewalks themselves.

We slowly stepped from the car and cautiously approached the sidewalk. The student was right. Cement block after cement block was covered, literally riddled with foreign text. On some it was blue sidewalk chalk. On others, yellow. I strained my eyes to make out the words illuminated by the headlights of the patrol car.

Alan and I, with the officer listening, read aloud...

I see I saw
he sees he saw
she sees she saw
you see you saw (m)
you see (f) you saw (f)
they see they saw
you all see you all saw
we see we saw

I love I brought
he loves he brought
she loves she brought

The terror went on for blocks, only interrupted by a sidewalk chalk sketch of a kitty cat and....a flower. Indeed, the only solace each of us could muster was the quite assurance that the obscenity and fear would be washed away. Soon. by the next snowfall.

While it smells of mystery and intrigue, this is truly a story of heroes. American Heroes. Four of them. Two were Arabic Students. One was a cop. And ... the other ... a student, with, thankfully, an acute knowledge of current events and who was brave enough to make a phone call.