0 Words for Terror Victims 11Sept01 SDSU Ceremony 13sept01 ----------------------------- By Bonnie Zimmerman, Ph.D. Chair, SDSU Senate Professor of Women's Studies Words from the SDSU Memorial Service on 9/13/2001 Hi all,

I promised I would e-mail you the  copy of Bonnie Zimmerman's speech from the Thursday Memorial service.  I thought her comments were poignant and I liked her call to action for us, as educators.  warm regards, Cathie


By Bonnie Zimmerman, Ph.D.
Chair, SDSU Senate
Professor of Women's Studies
Words from the SDSU Memorial Service on 9/13/2001

On an occasion such as this, words can seem empty and inadequate.  But words are tools we use to communicate, a word that derives from the Latin "to make common."  So I will turn to an expert in words, the poet Emily Dickinson, to begin.
Dickinson wrote, "After great pain, a formal feeling comes-The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs-"  Her words convey to me the sense of shock, disbelief, numbness, and unreality that everyone has expressed in the hours following the attacks on Tuesday.  Perhaps this "formal feeling" is the mind's way of sheltering the soul from the full impact of events so unimaginable and so horrific.   But what happens when, in her words, "the Hour of Lead" passes, when the "Chill-then Stupor" leads, as she says, to "the letting go"?

We are now experiencing our own emotional "letting go" as feelings of grief, anger, fear, anxiety, and compassion rise up within us. As an educator, I am particularly concerned about two feelings that are emerging: hatred and helplessness.  We must try not to succumb to them, for they form the poisonous soil in which the seeds of indiscriminate violence are sown.

Yesterday, I learned of several incidents that should trouble us all greatly.  Across the country, people-including some of our own friends and colleagues-are being verbally and even physically assaulted for looking different from what Americans are presumed to look like.  We know how easily the fear of our differences can lead to prejudice, hatred, and ultimately violence.  It is our responsibility as educators-and I include everyone here in that category-to patiently and passionately break down myths and stereotypes, to replace ignorance with knowledge and understanding.

Yesterday, I also listened to a student say that she felt paralyzed with helplessness. Again, as educators we must work to give people the tools they need to turn hopelessness and despair into a sense of purpose and confidence in their ability to comprehend the complex world in which we live and envision ways to bring about meaningful change.

I have always held the belief that education changes us for the better, that it opens our minds and hearts to the world outside our immediate surroundings and helps us understand the common humanity that underlies the many differences that enrich and yet too often frighten us.  Now is a time to reach across our differences and turn to one another for strength and uderstanding.   I'll conclude with a few lines from another great poet, Adrienne Rich, who wrote about her dream of a common language:  "We know now we have always been in danger/down in our separateness/=8Abut till now we had not touched our strength=8A.We will not live/to settle for less  We have dreamed of this/all of our lives."
Cathie Atkins-Kaplan, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies
Office of the Dean
College of Sciences  MC 4610
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA  92182-4610

Tel: (619) 594-5350
Fax: (619) 594-3590
e-mail:  catkins@sunstroke.sdsu.edu