The Reed community gathered together in many ways when the events
of September 11 struck. The entire community met later that afternoon
in a packed Kaul Auditorium to talk about what it meant to each
of them, and small groups of students met in the residence halls
after the general meeting. The student editors of the Quest decided
to run a special issue as a public forum for community discussion.
A Reed union featured a panel of faculty members who talked about
how to stay informed about the events. Most visibly, some students
put up a memorial on the lawn in front of Eliot Hall in the form
of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. With a place for
flowers and remembrances, and markers out for people to write
on the white cloth surfaces, this became a place where students
and members of the faculty and staff went to express their thoughts
and feelings.
What some wrote on the memorial:
Even Achilles regretted
his anger.
An eye for an eye
only makes the whole world blind.” –Mahatma Gandhi
UNDERSTAND.
We have no enemies,
only brothers and sisters in suffering.
May we all work to ensure
that nothing like this happens again.
Ever.
Plan harm for another and harm yourself most.
The evil we hatch always comes home to roost. –Hesiod, Works and Days
GRIEVE.
This lump of lead in our hearts will never
go away, and our only hope is that unexplained human alchemy
which, in time, turns lead into gold. We shall endure.
