Last week, I had already written my Top Hat article before the horror. The incredible staff at The Poly worked with the Senate and me to be able to include the Senate Resolution of September 11 and a letter from Ariana and me.
I looked at my original column from last week today. It began by thanking your senators, and after the dedication they displayed last week I believe that appreciation becomes even more important.
I wrote on Sunday September 9, "It is easy to give criticism and to find faults with people when things go wrong, but rarely do we take the refreshing approach of recognizing people’s efforts and positive accomplishments when things are going well. So in that spirit I want to devote some time to recognize your Senate this week."
"In case you are not aware, in the six school weeks since I took office your Senate has met eight times! We have met as a body twice in one week on two separate occasions! We have had near perfect attendance for every meeting, so I wanted to thank your Senate by name for making my term as Grand Marshal an extremely productive and efficient one thus far."
"So thank you to Ayala Cnaan (Grad), Meredith Wells (Grad), Arikpo Onda ’02, Chris Gill ’02, David Siebecker ’02, Elizabeth Cotesworth ’02, Chris Mather ’03, Horace Simms ’03, Laura Cresenzo ’03, Rachel Bailey ’03, Anna Batorsky ’04, Chris Humphrey ’04, Leslie Granger ’04, William Cunningham ’04, Sarah McMordie (IC), Rohun Gholkar (Greek), Chris Lacey (E-board Liaison), Harold Baez (Secretary). I appreciate your commitment and cannot wait to see the fruition of your collective efforts." As for their accomplishments, you can now add meeting last Tuesday September 11, under the worst of circumstances, and passing a resolution that eased and inspired a campus community.
On a personal note, I must admit that I am having a great deal of difficulty adjusting to our new "reality." I harbor a resounding feeling of helplessness and inadequacy. I have the urge to run to Manhattan and do something, or enlist, or make it all better, or take away the pain. ... On many levels many of us have heeded the call to help; collecting donations and goods, giving blood, and listening and grieving, and coming together as a family. Yet I still feel so profoundly saddened. When I finally got some time to myself to sit and think (I was trying to stay as busy as humanly possible) without TV or cnn.com, I cried. And after tears were shed, I thought of the only way to deal with this horror. After great thought I arrived at one conclusion: I had to live.
To live, to love, to care, to learn, to grow, to share, to survive, clearly the most difficult challenge we as the survivors of this tragedy and time face is simply living our lives. Waking up and going to class, selling hockey tickets, smiling, laughing, living, enjoying one another; it will not be easy, but I challenge you all. The lives lost, all of those innocent souls, what would their wish be?
The challenge goes deeper, because not only is the challenge to live, but to live better. I hope everyone has called home this weekend. I hope that when people leave each other they do so on good terms. I hope we share how much we appreciate one another. I hope we are resolute not to hate. I hope that this which has not killed our spirit and heart will only serve to make us a stronger country and world. Call me idealistic, but I believe world peace is possible, because I realized after observing the unfathomable last week that anything could happen, and it actually could be for the better. I’ll get down off my soapbox now, but I urge everyone to be good to one another, please.
Senate meetings for the rest of the semester are 9:30 pm Tuesdays in Union Room 3202. Please come. Good night!
