In the same hall where campus and community members had convened one year before seeking solace in tragedy’s wake, people gathered again at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts to commemorate the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
During an hour-long commemorative program titled “We Together … 2002,” the Foellinger Great Hall reverberated with songs, verses and orations expressing hopes for unanimity and resilience. The performers included the Black Chorus, the UI Trombone Choir, the Chamber Singers and the Symphony Orchestra.
Together Encouraging the Appreciation of Multiculturalism (TEAM), a student group, recited the Twelve Prayers for Peace, which were recited in Assisi, Italy, on the Day of Prayer for World Peace during the United Nations International Year of Peace, 1986. The prayers represent the aspirations of a dozen faiths, including Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Native African.
Illinois Student Government representatives recited the Maya Angelou poem “A Brave and Startling Truth.”
Keynote speaker Rajmohan Gandhi, director of the Global Crossroads Living and Learning Community, commended the American people for their response to the Sept. 11 violence, particularly their striving for healing and tolerance while concurrently seeking security and preservation of human rights.
“Similarly, may I affirm, and I believe the great heart of America will allow me to affirm, that the existence of terrorism does not eliminate justice as a value,” Gandhi said. “The need to strive for justice is also, perhaps, a condition of our being as humans. And the need to be wise in this striving, the need to adopt right means, may be a condition of our survival as humans.”
Citing several friends whose lives were lost in terrorist acts, Gandhi, who is the grandson of the Mahatma Gandhi, denounced violence as a response to perceived injustice and said that personal accountability is unmitigated by nationality.
Furthermore, Gandhi rebutted beliefs that a clash between Islamic and American cultures was inevitable.
To promote peace and healing, Gandhi said Afghanistan must be rebuilt, its opposing factions reconciled and amicable relations restored between Afghanistan and America.
Quoting from Lincoln’s second inaugural address, Gandhi noted the contemporary relevance of Lincoln’s aspirations for healing and “lasting peace” among all nations.
“And if this return of 9/11 sends our thoughts also to the Middle East, perhaps we should have the courage with Lincoln to pray for a just and lasting peace there, with the involvement, perhaps of ourselves and all nations,” Gandhi said.
Alluding to the precarious state of international relations, Gandhi said the future may be a test of America’s commitment to its principles.
Chancellor Nancy Cantor likewise urged members of the campus community to use the luxury of academic freedom to foster tolerance and understanding.
“If our experiences of 9/11 have taught us anything collectively and individually it is that we are all prisoners of our preconceptions, drawn apart, not together, by what we assume about the motives, beliefs, ideas and ways of life of others,” Cantor said. “We have to see each other more clearly. We must. Doing that is hard work, and it comes to us in very personal ways.”
