September 11 Remembrance

Campus Gathering
Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Friends: Peace on earth is possible.

The road to peace is apparently a long one, but we will walk it and we will not grow tired.

We gather this morning with people across the world, to insist on this simple truth: peace is possible. And in doing so, we continue the work of so many who have walked this path before us: people whose names we know, and many, more whose names we do not know.

To work for peace is to accept a demanding vision: it is to work amidst the brokenness of the world with a clear vision of the world made whole.

So we gather in peace. We gather in the name of all those who have gone down this road before us. We gather in the name of all those whom the violence surrounding 9/11 has taken from us—including all in our own community who’ve lost a loved one.

We gather to remember not only what we’ve lost—and who, and how—we gather to remember what we hope for, why we live, that we love.

Let us begin, anew, this peace-making work.

The road to peace is apparently a long one, but we will walk it and we will not grow tired.

—Elizabeth H. Bradley, President, Vassar College