Remembering 9/11

Hundreds of people gathered on Cross Campus on Sept. 11 at a candlelight ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The following are excerpts from the remarks by President Richard C. Levin, University Chaplain Sharon Kugler and Yale College Council President Brandon Levin, with links to the full texts.

“Here at Yale every day, in the classroom and outside, we confront fundamentalism and terrorism by other means. We challenge established beliefs; we encourage each other to find reasons for our beliefs; we confront closed-minded dogmatism with argument. This is the essence of liberal education: we encourage everyone in this community to engage the power of reason to examine all points of view, to shape arguments, to weigh evidence, and to develop independently a view of what is true and what is not. …

“Freedom, toleration, and open-mindedness: these are the values of the University. These are the values that America at its best stands for. Even as we remember and honor the victims of the terror inflicted upon us ten years ago this day, let us commit ourselves to reject blind adherence to dogma and affirm freedom, toleration, and open-mindedness. Let us ever confront darkness and prejudice with light and truth.”

— President Richard C. Levin

Read the full text of the President’s remarks here.

“We must continue to remove the blinders that we have placed on ourselves that restrict our vision, blinding us to the light of human possibility shining through on the faces of all people. We must come together as one. We can only do this if we let go of the divisions that plague our very humanity. We must let go of that which polarizes us. The evil that feeds those divisions based on race, ethnicity, gender, class, religious creed and sexual orientation keeps us from realizing our full promise as citizens of the this beautiful but weary world.”

— University Chaplain Sharon M.K. Kugler

Read the full text of Kugler’s remarks here.

“Many of us here have lived half of our lives in a post-9/11 world. That thought is at once both terrifying and inspiring. Terrifying in that there seems to ever-remain a cloak of fear that the unimaginable might happen again. As we make our way through airports to and from Yale, that much is clear. But it is also inspiring. Inspiring in a way that few things can be. Ten years ago, our nation was deeply wounded. Yet, the fact that we stand here today, as we did then, is an affirmation of the strength of our community — at Yale, in the city of New Haven and all across the United States.”

— Yale College Council President Brandon Levin

Read the full text of Levin’s remarks here.