Students commemorate lives lost

As students traveled up Locust Walk in front of Van Pelt Library yesterday, they were confronted by an eerie and powerful scene -- 90 flower-adorned headstones.

The mock graves were set up by Penn for Peace, a group of undergraduate and graduate students. Yesterday's event, which began at 7 a.m. and lasted well into the night, served to commemorate the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as well as the Afghan civilians who have lost their lives in the U.S. military efforts overseas.

"It's a very striking visual reminder of the real costs of war and the costs of revenge," College junior Anna Roberts said. "The gravestones of the World Trade Center victims are here and we now have that many dead Afghanis, if not more, so we have that many more suffering families in the world."

Many members of the activist group said they originally expected criticism and negative feedback from students and other passers-by.

"I was nervous that people would come up to me and [say], 'You guys are terrorists. How much did bin Laden pay you?' or something like that, which people have definitely done in the past," College senior Reshma Mehta said. "But today, people have given us the warmest responses, telling us how this visual presentation is so powerful and so moving and really makes people stop and think."

Other participants in the event said that some students would not want to be confronted with painful reminders of the events of the past seven months.

"We were afraid that people would feel offended, or that they wouldn't want to be reminded of what's going on," Roberts said.

Instead, members of the group found that the unexpected positive feedback greatly outweighed the negative.

"An overwhelming majority of the response has been positive," said soon-to-be Penn Medical School employee Ben Bressman. "There are a few people that have disagreed with us but they've really been in the minority."

Penn for Peace members said they feel that there aren't nearly enough people speaking out against war and violence. Using College Green as a public forum, members of the group voiced their own opinions in an effort to raise awareness of the perils of terrorism and war.

"I think there are a lot of people who feel like there just aren't a lot of voices in the media right now, voices of people speaking out against war and against violence as a means of solving problems," Roberts said.

The activist group hopes voices will be heard by U.S. legislators this Saturday at a protest to be held in Washington, D.C. While raising awareness for their cause yesterday, Penn for Peace members also heavily promoted this weekend's event.

"We've gotten a lot of people who hadn't signed up who are now going," Roberts said.

The events of the day culminated in a candlelight vigil at 9:30 p.m. on College Green.

"It serves as a solemn memorial to the people who were killed as a result of war," Bressman said.

Since Sept. 11, Penn for Peace has held several events to promote peaceful alternatives to violence and war. Educational "teach-ins" have been held in which professors spoke about topics ranging from alternatives to war to what President Bush has called the "axis of evil."

In November, the group set up a tent city on College Green to raise awareness of the consequences of the U.S. retaliation on Afghan civilians and the plight of American workers who were laid off as a result of the economic recession. About 30 students camped out in the tents for several days to promote their cause.

At each Penn for Peace event, the message remains the same.

"I think a lot of people have the notion in their mind that war is a default solution to all of our foreign policy problems," Mehta said. "In fact, it's usually the opposite.... Violence brings terror and more violence and will eventually lead back to political instability and insecurity in the U.S."

Comments (5)

I did not get a chance to ask any of the "Penn for Peace" people on College Green yesterday, but I am curious... In what way(s) do you think America should combat terror? SK

Apparently they want us to ignore it and it will stop. If we just ignored the September 11th incidents, we wouldn't have been attacked anymore. Bob

It would be useful for these people to consider that the only aircraft of the 4 that were hijacked that was not used as a weapon for mass murder of almost four thousand innocent people was the one plane where the passengers used violence to resist. if anything the murders of Sept. 11 are a reminder that there are times when the only recourse is violence and war or the cold grave of the victim. Lucas

Gee - it seems we've gone a couple of months now without hearing from the DP about the courageous activities of the pacifist appeasers on campus. Great to hear they are still around living in their dreamworlds. steve

> I did not get a chance to ask any of the "Penn for Peace" > people on College Green yesterday, but I am curious... > In what way(s) do you think America should combat terror? > SK Good question, we get that one a lot. I like to use the old saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." The US response to terrorism simply furthers the cycle of violence. When we rely on violence to solve our problems, more violence will be directed back at us. We funded Iraq�?s war against Iran, and Iraq turned on us. We funded and gave military training to the Taliban, and we all know what happened there. What should we do? Something else! As a nation we�?ve relied on violence since the beginning, and it has never produced any lasting peace. I would like to see the US combat the root causes of anti-American aggression, instead of just dealing with the effects of it. The more we bomb terrorist hideouts, the more innocent civilians we will kill mistakenly, thus creating even more hatred towards the US and western civilization in general. We need to take away any excuse other nations use to hate us. We need to spend more on education, humanitarian aid, and quality of life improvements. And not just for US citizens, for the entire international community. 9/11 showed us that even with our advanced military capabilities and intelligence, we still couldn�?t protect our citizens within our own borders. Only by peacefully turning our perceived enemies into allies could we even begin to ensure public safety against outside (and inside) aggression. Check out "A Force More Powerful" by Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall for examples of successful nonviolent resistance against hatred and aggression. > Apparently they want us to ignore it and it will stop. If > we just ignored the September 11th incidents, we > wouldn't have been attacked anymore. > Bob No one EVER suggested we just "ignore it." I advocate nonviolent resistance, which by no means ignores the problem. Again, we need to aggressively combat violence with by spending more on education, humanitarian aid, and quality of life improvements for the international community. "Gandhi�?s Power" by Dennis Dalton and "Walking with the Wind" by John Lewis both give great examples of how peace does NOT mean ignoring problems, but aggressively combating injustice with peace and love. > It would be useful for these people to consider that the only > aircraft of the 4 that were hijacked that was not used as a > weapon for mass murder of almost four thousand innocent > people was the one plane where the passengers used > violence to resist. > > If anything the murders of Sept. 11 are a reminder that there > are times when the only recourse is violence and war or the > cold grave of the victim. > Lucas This is another example of violence being used to combat the effects of anti-American aggression, not the root causes. I want to see violence stopped before it�?s started. I don�?t want anyone hijacking planes in the first place. I disagree that 9/11 is proof that killing is necessary. It shows me that we have a lot of work to do promoting peace and ensuring that children grow up with love in their hearts instead of guns in their hands. Only then can we truly feel safe... > Gee - it seems we've gone a couple of months now without > hearing from the DP about the courageous activities of the > pacifist appeasers on campus. Great to hear they are still > around living in their dreamworlds. > steve None of us are living in a dream world, I�?d say with the amount of death and destruction in this world we�?re all living in a horrible nightmare. I�?m working towards the dream world. I�?m also a realist, I don�?t think I�?ll live to see the true "beloved community" Martin Luther King Jr. talked about, but I�?m able to sleep a night because I know I�?m working towards it and trying to lay the foundations of a successful peace movement that can bring about the "beloved community." Ben Bressman bbressman@mac.com

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