Music, readings and speeches evoke reflection on loss, hope for future

Professor Alexander Nehamas GS '71 recited a poem by Seamus Heaney titled "Anything Can Happen."

USG President Nina Langsam '03 read a passage from the Bible book of Lamentations, emphasizing that "God does not willingly try to hurt anyone."

In bleachers and on the grass, the crowd sang "Amazing Grace."

As hundreds of students, faculty, staff and community members gathered on Cannon Green last night in recognition of the anniversary of last September's unforgettable tragedy, a contemplative quiet reflected the solemnity of the occasion.

The medley of musical selections, poetry readings and other thoughts shared by program participants revealed the diversity of personal responses to Sept. 11, though each contribution carried a common thread. While invocations ranged from God to Walt Whitman and Leo Tolstoy, each presenter considered the difficult balance between mourning and hope.

In an interview before the ceremony, President Tilghman said the spirit of the service is not only to remember those who died but also to resolve that we will go on.

"We are here today to gather, to reflect and reaffirm our individual and collective commitments to response and renewal," Tilghman said in her opening statement.

"The service was an opportunity for unity and comfort that would as much as possible represent the entire student body," said Dean of Religious Life Thomas Breidenthal, one of the event's planners. "This is why we asked the elected head of student governments to speak and tried to balance religion and academics and thought and music."

It was no coincidence that the assembly evoked recollections of the service conducted by Tilghman last year the weekend after the attacks. Ann Halliday of the president's office, who was active in organizing last night's event, said it was based on a last year's memorial ceremony. "There was high desirability to maintain the same framework and same combination of elements: music, reflections and readings."

Music for the program was coordinated by chapel music director Penna Rose and performed by members of the chapel choir, Camerata and other campus singing groups.

One of the pieces Rose considersed most powerful, "Dona Nobis Pacem," from the Mass in B Minor by Sebastian Bach, translates to "Grant Us Peace" and was also performed at last year's ceremony. Another, "Psalm 23" by Bobby McFerrin, provided a modern twist from the original psalm by replacing traditional male pronouns with female.

Other speakers included Guy Nordenson, an associate professor at the architecture school — who spent his sabbatical last fall mobilizing more than 400 structural engineers to advise on the demolition of Ground Zero — and Maureen Monagle '04, a co-founder of the Arts Alive program.

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In a haunting remembrance of the days after the attack, professor Caryl Emerson recalled in her talk "the dozens of commuter cars that remained unclaimed in the Princeton Junction parking lot on Sept. 11 and then on Sept. 12."

Like many of the speakers, however, Emerson ended on a positive note.

Citing Susan Neiman's "Evil in Modern Thought," she observed that what made the horror Sept. 11 so striking was that it was intentional.

She interpreted this as a call to action.

"In response to intentional acts we are obliged to do more than grieve, as the Book of Job makes eloquently clear," Emerson said. "As a nation and as individuals, may we grow to this task."