At noon Sept. 14, the Elon community paused to remember those lost and injured during the Sept. 11 attacks. Details...
In response to President Bush’s call for a national day of prayer and remembrance, the Elon community paused to remember those lost and injured during Tuesday’s terrorist attacks. Students, faculty and staff packed the area around Fonville Fountain Friday for a time of prayer, reflection and music.
Jenni Reaves, a junior from Charlotte, was one of the first students to arrive. “I feel obligated to be here to participate in any way that I can out of respect and remembrance,” Reaves said. “I wish there was more I could do.”
Junior Lena Page, from Winston-Salem, says the attacks have been a topic of discussion all week. “Anywhere you go, that’s what you start talking about,” she said. “It’s hard to be normal when there are so many people who are so distraught.”
Logan Glanzer, a sophomore from Florida, was looking forward to the prayer service. “I think it will be really good to get into a public gathering and talk with people,” he said. Glanzer’s brother works in lower Manhattan, but the family did not find out until hours later that he was out of the area when the attacks took place.
Kevin Burrows, a senior from Pittsburgh, says that although his family was not directly affected by the attacks, he was there to show support. He says this is a time for mourning on campus. “If I see people smiling right now, it’s like, ‘you shouldn’t be smiling,'” he said.
The service started at noon as Chaplain Richard McBride asked for silence during the tolling of the bells.
“When we gathered here on Tuesday morning (for College Coffee), our spirits were high,” he said. “But within an hour, the flags were at half-mast and we had a different reality to deal with.”
McBride said that more than 700 Elon families live within a 40-mile radius of Washington or New York City. He asked the crowd to remember Jason Boone, a freshman whose father works in the Pentagon and is still among the missing.
The chaplain also asked everyone to consider their response to this week’s events. “My prayer is that as a nation, we will not learn from this occasion how to hate.”
“There are two ways of being in the world: There is the way of fear and the way of faith,” he said. “If we respond to the horrific events of this week principally out of fear, then the terrorists have won. Striking terror into our hearts is their goal. But if we respond out of faith, the world wins.”
McBride also encouraged Americans to have respect for those who are different.
“I ask you to make a distinction between religion and ideology. Between Islam and those from that region of the world who apparently have been the perpetrators of this violence,” he said. “Fear in the nation today makes neighbor suspicious of neighbor. Our nation is a testing ground for this idea of nationhood. We do not have to all be alike to make a civilization.”
In addition to McBride’s remarks, prayers were offered by students Nicole Scherle and Jeff Hadley. To conclude the prayer service, students from campus singing groups Twisted Measure, Sweet Signatures and MSG gathered on the steps of Alamance to sing “Amazing Grace.”
After the service, students Laura Hendricks and Jen McCullough said they were moved by what they saw. “I like how the students were involved,” Hendricks said. McCullough added that the prayers were beautiful. “It’s better to hear it from your peers,” she said.
Junior Tim Trimmer, from Northern Virginia, said the event was “a good way for everybody to get together and say a prayer.” Sophomore James Mould, also from Virginia, says he expected the event to be like College Coffee but came away with more. “I thought it was nice how all the students came together as one,” he said.
Jon Williams, a sophomore from New Jersey, said the service was an important way to promote campus unity. He said the mood of the campus this week was “like the weather — kind of dismal.” Williams has a friend at home whose cousin was on the hijacked plane from Newark.
L’Tanya Richmond, director of minority affairs, and junior Shana McLaughlin came to the service wearing red, white and blue. “I found it to be very comforting to know that we’re not in this alone,” Richmond said.
McLaughlin agreed. “I think the power of prayer is tremendous,” she said.
President Emeritus Earl Danieley also noted the significance of the gathering. “When the Elon family meets in prayer, it is a sign of our unity and a symbol of our faith,” he said.