A Year After 9/11, Oberlin Seeks to Heal, Understand
By Blake Wilder

The events of September 11, 2001 will be the defining moment for our generation, possibly even more so than the Kennedy assassination or VE day for the generations before us. In just a few short hours, the way we viewed the world was fundamentally changed.
Nearly all, if not everyone, on this campus had friends or family from New York or Washington, and our usually quiet Oberlin lives were shattered that morning.
Next week will mark the one-year anniversary, and just as our campus organized and pulled together then it will do so again on Wednesday for remembrance.
At 8:45 a.m., the entire campus is invited to a moment of silence in Finney chapel. Professors of Organ David Boe and James Christie will play prelude and postlude.
The Conservatory string quartet will be playing in the commons of the new Science Center during the lunch hour.
There will be an all-faith gathering in Finney at 7:30 in the evening.
“We want to be inclusive, obviously, of as many traditions as we can, brought together by participation,” Protestant Chaplain Fred Lassen said. “To do that we’re getting representatives from as many religious traditions as we can to be part of the service.”
Instead of one person giving the invocation, four or five people from different traditions will do so. There will also be a list of 12 prayers for people to choose from or they people can simply ad lib one. All the prayers will be read simultaneously in what Lassen called “a sort of symphony of prayer.”
A choir made up of faculty and students from different parts of the campus will sing a version of Psalm 84 and the world famous sitar player Hasu Patel will also play a selection.

“It’s not a service of preaching; it’s a remembrance,” Lassen said. “We don’t want to exclude people who don’t have a specific faith tradition.”

There will also be tribute concert at the Cat in the Cream at 9:30 p.m. Seniors Lucy Roche and Jason Goss and junior Chris Eldridge, among others, will perform. Those in attendence are also encouraged to bring poems, songs or just words to share.

“The night at the Cat is a chance for people to come and reflect, remember, and tell their fellow Oberlin community members what it meant or means to them,” Roche said.

“You want to spend the day of 9/11 in commemoration of the events of the year before, and then also have another day for more substantive dialogue about how the world has changed since 9/11” Assistant to the President Diana Roose said.

To accomplish this a teach-in is being held throughout the morning of Sept. 14, in Finney Chapel. Congressman Sherrod Brown will speak about Congress and the War on Terror, and there will be faculty panels to discuss a range of topics including U.S. foreign and military policy, civil liberties, perceptions of Islam, the economy and Israel and Palenstine.

In the afternoon, there will be an activist forum in Wilder Bowl.