September-October 2001
BY NANNERL O. KEOHANE
President, Duke University
As many of you know, I was in New York City on Tuesday, September 11. I had flown into La Guardia Airport past lower Manhattan a few minutes before eight in the morning, looking out at the magnificent skyline on a brilliantly clear morning. As I arrived at my midtown destination, I learned of the horrific attack out of that clear sky, and then all the rest that followed. I shared with friends and colleagues the terror of not knowing where family members were, experiencing the shutdown of many essential parts of life, and also seeing firsthand the admirable way in which so many people worked hard to keep some semblance of civilized life, rushing out to help with relief work or give blood.Early on Wednesday morning, I walked for several blocks down Park Avenue. On the long prospect from 92nd Street for fifty blocks southward, there was not a single car in sight; the “city that never sleeps” had indeed been brought to a halt. I am so deeply grateful to all the people—bus drivers, subway drivers, and the people at Amtrak who left their own families to help the rest of us get home to ours.
Many people at Duke have been supported, succored, and sustained through these dark hours by outreach from others in this community. I want to express most heartfelt thanks to the team of leaders who managed the unprecedented and complicated situation so effectively and sensitively. I also want to thank all those who spoke eloquent words of comfort and healing to the community at the service in front of the Chapel.
In our various classrooms, offices, and residence halls, members of the university community have been trying to sort out their feelings and come to grips with the enormity of this tragedy. As members of an institution dedicated to education, it is very appropriate that people at Duke use this opportunity to inform ourselves about the many complex issues associated with events such as these, what we can learn from history, and how we can focus on supporting each other in the time ahead.
It is crucial that we rededicate ourselves to the fundamental values that define our
university and our way of life: to openness, trust, compassion, and dedication to helping others. Even as our country prepares to respond, as we must and shall, to this frontal assault on our civilization and our values,
we must try to avoid hatred and prejudice. If the abdication of our common humanity that led to this horrible attack is allowed to seep into our own lives and minds, then the terrorists will have achieved their diabolic aim.
The loss of life is enormous and tragic. The loss of our easy sense of security and invulnerability in our own country will have incalculable effects. But we cannot lose what this democracy is all about, what some of our citizens, at their best, have exemplified throughout our history. The devastation in lower Manhattan did not touch the Statue of Liberty standing nearby: The torch is still held high in her hand, and this terrible day must not be allowed to stain or erode the principles she embodies for us all.
The president offered these thoughts in a September 13 memo to the university community.