Thousands Attend Local Memorials To Remember Victims

Thousands of members of the Harvard community gathered in Tercentenary Theatre at noon Wednesday to commemorate the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The University estimated that 10,000 people—three times the attendance of last year’s vigil—gathered to hear University President Lawrence H. Summers address the importance of remembering the victims of Sept. 11 as well as the “eternal existence of evil” responsible for their deaths.

“Each innocent life lost...is the result of a calculated plan to murder unsuspecting people—not because of anything they did or even anything they stood for— but because they were members of this national community enjoying the fruits of freedom,” Summers said. “We vowed that we would remember and we have.”

Summers said that the country must now work to defend its values, and he called upon the Harvard community to lead the effort.

“For centuries, Harvard has been proud to serve the American nation—and now, increasingly, we are called to serve the world as well,” he said.

Summers’ speech was preceded by opening remarks from Swami Tyagananda, president of the United Ministry at Harvard, Bernard Steinberg, executive director of Harvard Hillel, Taha B. H. Abdul-Basser of the Harvard Islamic Society and Cyrus R. Mehta of the Harvard Zoroastrian Association.

Both undergraduate and graduate students then read from religious texts and the choral fellows of the University Choir performed “Canticle: Mosaic in Remembrance and Hope,” a piece written by Carson P. Cooman ’04.

At the ceremony’s conclusion, the Memorial Church’s bells were tolled in memory of those who died last year.

A Community Remembers

In addition to attending the noon ceremony, many students commemorated the anniversary at an evening vigil along the Charles River.

Many of the nearly 1,000 people who attended the vigil said they appreciated the opportunity for formal personal reflection.

“I am from Germany, but everyone has been touched by this. I felt I just had to get here to remember,” said Daniel Kraffczky, a student at the Graduate School of Design.

With green glowsticks in hand, the group gathered around two steel “remembrance beams” taken from the 82nd floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

The beams—given to the Cambridge Fire Department (CFD) by the New York City Fire Department—were signed by members of the New York City rescue team.

In the months following the attacks, CFD sent several fire fighters to New York to aid with grief counselling.

Many said that the two beams—meant to represent the two towers of the Trade Center—served as a physical symbol of the devastation in New York.

“It’s hard to believe that they could break,” said Stephen S. Brokaw ’06.

For John P. Kiernan, a New Yorker who said he knew many who died on Sept. 11, the vigil was only one of a series of painful remembrances.

“It brings up hard emotions that had been successfully suppressed,” he said.

But at the end of the evening, tears gave way to hugs and sighs of relief.

“There was an emptiness inside,” said Catherine P. Walker ’06, “but now the hole is filled.”

—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at vascell@fas.harvard.edu.