The Georgetown community found diverse ways to reflect on the tragic events that unfolded so close to Healy Gates on September 11. University officials and student groups sponsored several events on campus commemorating 9/11, including a memorial prayer service, a flag display and a panel discussion.
Georgetown students filled St. William’s Chapel on Tuesday to attend a late afternoon prayer service in honor of September 11 victims.
The prayer service, sponsored by the GUSA Interfaith Council, has been an ongoing tradition.
“We’ve done different things each year,” Fr. Timothy Godfrey, S.J. said. “We’ve had moments of silence, the reading of names of people who were lost at Georgetown, the planting of the tree last year. This year we decided to have the voices of people who were affected firsthand.”
Some students were unable to make it to the official prayer service, but prayed nonetheless.
“In Christianity, you think of people as brothers and sisters,” Sally Lee (SFS ‘11) said. “If I were a victim, I would like to think that other people would still remember me.”
Some students chose to engage 9/11 through the lens of international politics. Georgetown’s Institute for International Law and Politics put on a panel discussion in Gaston Hall on Monday, entitled “Beyond 9/11—A Bipartisan Approach to the War on Terror.” The event, featuring Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute and Robert McFarlane, former National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration, challenged students to think about their role in a post-9/11 world.
“Bipartisanship was the logical [topic] because we wanted Georgetown students to come out thinking about what they can do on campus,” Anthony Clark Arend, director of the Institute for International Law and Politics, said. “Immediately after 9/11, it looked like we were going forward with collaboration in foreign policy. Now it is partisan bickering all over again.”
The message of the panel discussion was ultimately one of hope.
“Georgetown students can be part of the solution,” Mark Vlasic, a senior fellow at the Institute, said. “Every person in this room and on this campus is a potential leader.”
