Rice Remembers 9/11

Rice Remembers 9/11
…………………………………………………………………

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News Staff

Rice University
joined the nation and the world Wednesday of last week in
remembering the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

The daylong commemoration
began with the tolling of the bell in the Campanile, the
campus bell tower, every five seconds from 7:45 a.m. CST,
the time the north tower was first hit, until 9:28 a.m.
CST, the time when the south tower fell.

At the Shepherd
School of Music, the Rice Chorale participated in “The
Rolling Requiem,” a worldwide concert commemorating
the attacks, with a performance of Mozart’s “Requiem
in D Minor.”

The anniversary
was closed with an evening memorial service held in the
Grand Hall of Rice Memorial Center. More than 2,900 flickering
votive candles filled the hall, each representing a life
lost in the attacks and providing a sobering visual reminder
of the magnitude of the tragedy.

The service mirrored
the one held at Rice almost one year before on Sept. 14,
the National Day of Remembrance. Speaking at the service
were Rice President Malcolm Gillis, leaders of the Student
Association and Graduate Student Association, Associate
Vice President for Human Resources Mary Cronin and Chandler
Davidson, the Radoslav Tsanoff Professor of Public Affairs
and professor of sociology and of political science.

“We gather
to honor those who died, and to convey as best we can our
compassion for their kin,” said Gillis, who opened
the service. Quoting historical and literary leaders, from
George Washington to Sir Francis Bacon and William Wordsworth,
Gillis offered words of guidance, comfort and hope.

Student Association
President Matt Haynie observed that this first great tragedy
of his generation forced him and his peers to ask difficult
questions of themselves, and he called on them to seek out
purpose and meaning in their lives.

“Our eyes
were opened at the greatest cost, and we must not let them
close again,” he said.

Miles Scotcher,
president of the Graduate Student Association, similarly
asked that people not allow the hope for the future that
was so surging in the wake of Sept. 11 to wane. “Hope
is all we have for the future,” he said. “Hope
for the families and friends of the victims. Hope for the
world in general. And hope that we will never see a tragedy
like Sept. 11 ever again.”

Representing
the staff of Rice University, Cronin observed that the victims
of the attacks were workers like us “doing the same
work we do here everyday.” She continued, “They
ennobled what we do everyday — coming here, managing
through problems together, looking toward the future and
doing the best we can.”

Finally, Davidson
challenged the audience to respond to the attacks on the
symbol of democracy by taking democracy seriously. He noted
that citizens of a democracy have duties, from reading newspapers
regularly to becoming involved in social causes and political
organizations to questioning political and religious leaders.

“Self rule,
in other words, requires that people be both knowledgeable
and active,” he said adding that apathy of a nation
“whether borne of ignorance, fear or laziness, is as
dangerous to democracy as terror from without,” Davidson
said.

“America
is engaged in a war against [something] to destroy democracy.
We citizens do our share in fighting that war by taking
democracy seriously. We will appropriately have honored
the victims of Sept. 11 by doing so.”