Office of the President Emeritus

THE WAY FORWARD

REMARKS TO STUDENTS
President’s Leadership Retreat

Roanoke, Virginia
September 16, 2001

Dr. Thomas K. Hearn, Jr.
President, Wake Forest University

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As the desperate recovery continues in New York and Washington, and as the larger national recovery begins, it is time for us to consider what we must do if we are to respond appropriately to this tragedy and the new reality which the nation and its people now confront.

As a university community, we have a responsibility to address the objective events and their likely consequences. What happened? Why would people do such an unspeakable wrong? What history lies behind these events? What are the lessons and likely outcomes? This is, at one level, a purely academic and intellectual undertaking. We need to understand, and we must set about the work of teaching and learning. We are a place devoted to study, and we have lessons, grim lessons, to master.

We must remind ourselves that these circumstances, tragic and horrific though they are, also call forth and require the noblest elements of the human spirit—heroism, sacrifice, dedication to cause and love. Those gallant New York firemen, rushing into those doomed buildings as everyone else was struggling to escape, left an indelible impression on our nation’s heart and mind. There are lessons of nobility and courage to consider as well as those of hate.

These awful events test us, both as individuals and as a nation. My father, who served in World War II, loved the lines of Phillips Brooks: “O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks!” Your generation has been given an extraordinary set of new tasks. You will thus require powers equal to those tasks. But as these heroic images have shown, with such clarity and purpose, our nation possesses the capacity to do what duty will now require of us. Our history counsels us to confidence in these moments. Our national will has never been found wanting.

Despite our personal reactions of grief and sorrow, we should maintain focus on this objective set of dreadful circumstances and those of the human family of many nations directly affected. The victims were those in the planes and buildings, and their loved ones who now confront a horrible loss. Our personal horrors or fears must not become narcissistic or self-serving. It is a moment to regard the real sufferings of the many victims and those who loved them.

These events are still unfolding. We do not know what coming days will bring, but we must be prepared to face other times of shock and grief. The lessons of these days and hours must make us resolute and strong.

Times of tragedy are also occasions that demand and summon personal growth and expanded self-understanding. A great difficulty of the present moment for this student generation is that you lack a frame of reference, an historical memory, from which these events might be assessed and understood. You have not had a president—John F. Kennedy—slain, or an heroic leader—Martin Luther King, Jr.—martyred. You did not know the national agonies of Vietnam or the Iranian hostage crisis. You have not experienced—until now—the nation poised for war. But the lessons of hate and vengeance are the legacy of long human experience. You and your generation were not to be spared. You are today both sadder and wiser.

We must consider, therefore, our subjective and emotional reactions—in addition to the events—as they have been and will be experienced by the Wake Forest community, however far removed we may be from Ground Zero. These are subjective rather than objective matters, and there is an emotional learning we require in the days and months ahead.

With a visible calamity of unspeakable proportion unfolding before our very eyes, we respond with ranges of anger, shock, grief, denial. People process these profound emotions in different ways and in different sequences. Our friends already under stress or in some state of anxiety are at particular risk in that this larger tragedy will further fracture an already fragile emotional equilibrium. We must support each other in whatever reaction of grief or outrage our fellows may be experiencing. We must be attentive to the special needs of our friends and associates as well as to our own reactions.

Be mindful of the stern admonition to love our enemies as well as our neighbors. The hate that has wounded us must not be reciprocated to the innocent among us.

These emotions are powerful messages from our minds and bodies concerning the psychological meanings of these events. Emotions, as messages, must be processed and interpreted. Such emotional processing is a communal and social act, and takes place in community. We must avoid personal isolation in times of distress. That is a primary reason why we did not cancel classes last week. It was much the better for all of us to come together and to be together. This is not a private but a public tragedy. We must, therefore, respond in public to learn from each other in our common distress.

For those in particular distress, now or in coming days, we should be quick to secure professional help either from the offices of Campus Ministry or in the Counseling Center. Early intervention in emotional turmoil is most important, and you should be prepared to address the needs of those who seem to be in special need.

My wife, trained as a counselor, reminds me often that all talk is important. So as you address one another in our residence halls and classrooms in coming days, speak the truth as you experience it and hear with a like mind the voices of your fellows. No conversation on this grievous subject is casual.

In these circumstances, affirm the basic personal emotional relationships of your life. These relationships are fundamental to your emotional security and sense of self. When the world seems out of kilter and out of joint, you need to be in touch with those who are nearest and dearest. My brother was traveling on Tuesday, and his daughter could not reach him. I had an urgent e-mail from her: “Uncle Tom, I need a father,” and for that moment I acted as her father.

We all felt that need for contact with those persons who are secure and reliable sources of safety. So stay in contact with your family and friends. Someone said, wisely so, that hugs matter. Human contact comes with blessings. Someone at Wake Forest sent a teddy bear to an affected friend. We all crave security and the tokens of security.

Participate in public ceremonies, religious or patriotic. Ceremonial life is an affirmation of our common and public reality. Who we are and what we are, as a people and nation, is larger and more permanent than our personal lives and losses. We must affirm that corporate reality. In liturgy, we find a voice and a vocabulary to speak on our behalf when we have no words of our own. In ceremony, in word and in song, we organize our minds and our emotions in ways that are redemptive and affirming. Your generation has less experience and exposure to the power of ceremonial acts, and this can be an opportunity to witness and celebrate that power.

Engage in acts of symbolism and affirmation. Whether the act is wearing a flag or ribbon or placing flowers in some location of symbolic consequence, these acts, however small, represent your personal participation in and solidarity with a larger common and human purpose. That sense of identification, publicly enacted, is redemptive for both the participant and those who witness these gestures. These are small acts with large meanings. The flag in Perritt Plaza at half-mast strikes me with force every time I pass, a small but significant acknowledgement of national grief.

Volunteer in some way that is a personal offering. Whether you donate blood, participate in some campus effort or give money, be an agent as well as a sufferer. Again, these acts, however slight, are large in terms of your sense of solidarity with those who are in need of aid. As the motto of the St. Christopher Society says, “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” Light some candles. It is dark now, dark especially in New York, Washington, Boston, and Los Angeles.

For the moment, normal life may seem not only out of reach but also out of place. In view of these events, the routines of our experience seem trivial and empty. Of what use are our studies, our parties, our games? These routines are far from trivial. These routines are our lives. We must move toward normality as quickly as our broken spirits will allow. The normal is not to be resisted. It is to be embraced. We must laugh again as well as cry.

Heal we must, and we will. To act responsibly in the face of both tragedy and crisis, we must have our working boots on. The nation and those tragically afflicted need us at our best. We must put our boots on and be prepared for the hard march we face.

Remember also that moments of suffering are occasions when we can be blessed with spiritual and moral growth. Heroes and saints are the products of crisis. Those whom God loves, He most makes also to suffer. There is no resurrection not preceded by some painful walk through some valley of the shadow of death. Normal days are seldom occasions of moral and spiritual transformation. Have a listening heart in these hours of hurt and anguish. You may hear a whisper of angels.