Memorial convocation and panels bring reflection on 9/11

Elliott Reed '05 ILR, passes out American flags to other students during the Sept. 11 Memorial Convocation in the A.D. White Gardens, Sept. 11, 2002. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography
	Convocation crowd members listen to the Cornell Glee Club and Chorus perform the anthem from "The Peaceable Kingdom." Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography
The Ven. Tenzin Gephel, Cornell Buddhist chaplain, speaks during the Sept. 11 Memorial Convocation in the A.D. White House Gardens, Sept. 11. To his left and right are the convocation's other speakers, including President Hunter Rawlings, and behind him is the Glee Club and Chorus. Robert Barker/University Photography

By Roger Segelken

Words of consolation, reaffirmation and encouragement were heard as an estimated 1,000 Cornellians filled the gardens of the A.D. White House Sept. 11 for a noontime convocation in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks one year before.

Storm clouds and shifting winds threatened, but failed, to interrupt the interdenominational memorial service, which included readings by representatives of six religious faiths, music by the Cornell Glee Club and Chorus and messages from the university's president, principal chaplain and a student trustee.

"We recall the outpouring of support for victims and their families. We remember the random and concerted acts of kindness and generosity that the tragedy inspired on our campus and elsewhere," said President Hunter Rawlings. "And we reflect with pride on the response of Cornellians to the unprecedented events of Sept. 11, 2001."

Speaking a year after an evening campus gathering on that date, Rawlings reaffirmed that "ours is a community rooted in academic and civic freedoms" but noted that "the world is still a dangerous place."

Then the president made a confident prediction: "Our community and other communities throughout the world will withstand these assaults upon humanity, decency and reason and will respond to them with renewed commitment to democratic values, respect for human life and the peaceful resolution of conflict."

Attendees at the convocation, some holding small American flags or struggling to hold back tears, were asked to remember 20 Cornellians who died in the Sept. 11 attacks: Janice M. Ashley '98, Joshua T. Aron '94, Balewa A. Blackman '96, Joni Cesta '85, Swede J. Chevalier '98, Christopher Ciafardini, MBA '99, Edward Porter Felt, M.S. '93, Frederic N. Gabler '93, Arlene Joseph Fried '74, Donald J. Havlish Jr. '70, Stuart Lee '93, Sean P. Lynch '87, Eamon J. McEneaney '77, Virginia A. Ormiston '82, Kaleen E. Pezzuti '95, Elvin Romero '88, Michael A. Tanner '79, Jennifer Lynn Tzemis '96, M. Blake Wallens '92 and Kristin Osterholm White '57.

On the program were readings by campus religious leaders from the Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic and Protestant communities; reflections by the Rev. Kenneth Clarke, director of Cornell United Religious Work; and choral renditions of "America the Beautiful" and the anthem from "The Peaceable Kingdom," under the direction of Professor Emeritus of Music Thomas A. Sokol. However, Funa Maduka, student-elected member of the Cornell Board of Trustees, had the last word.

The College of Arts and Sciences junior recalled the dumbstruck horror that prevailed among her fellow students last Sept. 11. But that feeling of helplessness did not last long, Maduka said, and soon she witnessed a campuswide recommitment to the university's mission. "Hatred caused the attacks of Sept. 11th, and since hatred springs from ignorance, and ignorance from lack of enrichment, our duty as a university is clear," she said. "It is only through reason, knowledge, pursuit of scholarship and understanding that the human spirit can be enriched.

"By applying Cornell traditions to our lives each and every day," Maduka added, "we honor those who perished in the most practical and permanent way possible: The values we share when we serve our fellow human beings can become the greatest testaments to those who died and who were wounded, physically and spiritually, on Sept. 11th."

An audio recording of the convocation can be heard at: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept02/observance1.aif.