Approximately 1,500 people from Hopkins and the surrounding community came to a vigil on the Upper Quad last Thursday night to mourn for the thousands of lives feared lost in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Sept 11. President William R. Brody and University Chaplain Sharon Kugler were present to share their thoughts on the attacks, and to remind everybody that diversity and tolerance are crucial to America.
"We need to be mindful that the acts of the few do not characterize the beliefs of the many," said Brody. "Whether the attackers be Christian, Muslim, some other religion or even atheists, they can not speak for the great majority of their fellow religious followers any more than Timothy McVeigh, an American terrorist, should have been considered representative of American Christians."
Brody said this just hours after numerous assaults targeting Muslims occurred throughout the nation. Although some people have reacted with anger, Americans are overwhelmingly coming together to help the recovery efforts underway in New York and Washington, Brody said.
"You have given yourselves, your material possessions and your prayers, but do not forget yourselves," he said. "Don't forget your own mental health. The full impact of Tuesday's events will take weeks, months or perhaps even years to comprehend."
Brody talked about the direct impact the attacks had on the Hopkins community. He was aware of several students who had lost family in the attacks and an Applied Physics Laboratory employee, Ron Vauk, who is missing from the Pentagon and assumed dead. Several Hopkins alumni were also in the hijacked planes and in the World Trade Center.
After Brody finished his speech, Kugler pointed out that the tragedy brought out the best in many Americans and how the recovery from the attacks fostered national unity.
"The first thoughts on some many minds across America was giving," said Kugler. "May we offer the power of our sorrow to the service of something greater than ourselves. We fell to our knees wondering how the unspeakable could happen. Our eyes may be opened by this tragedy, but may we not be crushed underneath its weight."
Kugler mentioned a quote from Diana Hayes she had read the night before the attack: "Who do you God say that we are?" According to Kugler, the quote is significant because it asks us to define our humanity, something that may not be easy after such a tragic event.
Like Brody, Kugler emphasized that the attacks should be used as a reason to unite America, rather than divide based upon religious differences.
"We must understand that acts of terror are not religious acts," Kugler said. "They are shameless acts of evil and ignorance. "
"We must, we must come together as one," said Kugler. "We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. This is all God has ever, ever asked of us."
Kugler called attention to flowers that everybody received when they entered the upper quad. The flowers represented the "miracle and sanctity of life." Students later piled the flowers on the steps of Gilman Hall, where Brody and Kugler spoke.
After Kugler called for the group "to spend the next few moments in silent prayer, reflecting upon those whose lives were lost an upon what remains to be done by each of us left behind," the Gospel Choir ended the vigil with a song. Many students stayed in the upper quad after the event to talk with other students and reflect on the attacks.
The idea of a vigil first came up Tuesday during an emergency meeting of Hopkins faculty in response to the attacks. Several different administrative offices came together to organize the event, including the Office of the Dean of Student Life and the Office of Homewood Student Affairs.
"I asked President Brody and Sharon Kugler to come and speak at the vigil," said Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell. "We (the Office of the Dean of Student Life) bought the flowers, [and] we did the follow through, [but] the vigil was really a group effort" between different university offices.
"[The vigil] was one in a series of things Student Affairs was talking about following the events of Tuesday," said Dennis O'Shea, executive director of Communications and Public Affairs. Faculty members wanted to plan "number of different things, like Dean David['s event] and classes, because people were interested in dealing with things in different ways."
"Everything that I heard about the vigil was positive," said Boswell. "It was really comforting for people to hear President Brody and Sharon speak."
According to Boswell, student feedback of the vigil and of an earlier talk by Dean Steven David has fueled more interest in similar events.
"There's a lot of interest in more academic forums [like Dean David's]," said Boswell. "We had no idea what kind of response we would have. [For the vigil] people were coming from other campuses and from East Baltimore."
While no direct continuations of the events are currently planned, Kugler is planning on opening the Interfaith Center to silent prayer after Yom Kippur passes.
"The overriding need of the community is to come together," said Boswell. "People have such a range of feelings. We all need to pull together in times like these.
