Remembering September 11
Archived article from Sep 23, 2002
Remarks by President Lawrence, Old Queen's campus
On each Rutgers campus this morning, members of the university community are gathering to honor the memory of those who died one year ago in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day. Among them were 37 men and women of Rutgers.
We remember them today. And we honor them. We remember all the innocent victims of September 11. And we honor them as well. We remember the tears their families and the nation shed a year ago — and every day since then.
And we express our gratitude for the generosity of the hundreds of donors who have supported the scholarship fund we established in the days immediately following the tragedy for the children of the victims.
When we think of the cold-blooded murderers who took those innocent lives we renew our support for the worldwide efforts to eradicate terrorism.
We remember, today, the need not only for justice for the criminals and compassion for the families of the victims but also for healing between and among the people, the nations and the faiths of the Earth.
We remember the horror of last year, and pledge that the lessons we have learned from those bitter experiences will strengthen us and our resolve to work for a better world.
Remarks by Provost Roger Dennis, Camden campus
I would like to begin with a meditation. As a lawyer, I care deeply about the meaning and power of words. I want to discuss with you a single word: envy. It is a word that has always confused me. Maybe that is because it is such an emotionally powerful word. It has so many meanings, and it has both positive and negative connotations.
Envy describes our wants — and as human beings we want both noble and base things. Jealousy is often thought of as a perfect synonym for envy. We are jealous because we love and because we hate and grasp. An interesting and common use of the word "envy" is in the expression "the United States is the envy of the world." Certainly, there is a customary understanding of the cause of that envy.
Our economic wealth and political power are without parallel. There is also a jealousy of our individual and social freedoms, which are most extraordinary. To some, our commitment to equality and justice are "the envy of the world."
It is my belief that — in significant measure — the terrorists attacked our country on September 11 out of envy. Mostly out of envy for our economic and political power. But the attack also implicated in both its causes and effects envy, hatred and love of our commitments to individual freedom, social freedom and equality.
I want to leave you with this thought: If we can take away from September 11 a renewed commitment as a society to our core values of freedom and equality, then we have used the emotional power of envy to the good.
Poem by Professor Rachel Hadas, Newark campus 9/11/02
By Rachel Hadas
The planting here today
signifies both elegy
and hopeful ceremony.
Allowed to grow, this tree
even as it dips its roots
beneath the surface of the earth
will reach toward the sky
and change with seasons, change with years,
and give the weather back.
Invisibly, transparently
part of the landscape, cityscape, and campus,
it will give shade one day
or a trunk to lean against
for one who sits to read or write or dream;
and provide also something still more precious.
One tree; one thread of a peaceful tapestry.
Such strands of dailiness
are easy to ignore, to take for granted
until the continuity is broken
by violence, and from destruction
we have to start again
if not from the beginning
always from a beginning,
paying fresh attention this time
to the wide world, tour mortality.
Stars bring news from almost too far away
to imagine. Poems bring
news of yesterday and even — pressing
up against the deadline — of today.
trees bring news of tomorrow.
and we are here to mark
an awful yesterday, a yesteryear
by planting a tomorrow
in hope of sun and shade,
of days spent on this campus, of books read,
a place, a world renewable; renewed.
Rachel Hadas is Board of Governors Professor of English, Newark
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