UCSF, Monday,
September 17, 2001
Good evening. Thank
you for coming.
We are here to mourn an appalling loss of life.
We are here to denounce unspeakable acts of inhumanity.
We are here to renounce the hatred that bred those acts.
We are here to signify our common strength.
We are here to affirm our faith in the future.
We are a community of healing. We are the practitioner who meets the sick and dying at our front doors, the nurse who ministers in the dead of night, the aide who speaks a kind word, the physician who brings wisdom and compassion to the bedside, the scientist who seeks new ways to alleviate human suffering -- we are these and many others, in a community of healing. That is why a great tragedy so far removed from us in miles still seems so close to us in spirit.
The loss of life defies our purpose.
The acts of inhumanity mock our values.
The hatred is anathema and must NOT be returned in kind.
Our common strength sustains us through travail.
Our faith in the future is fundamental to our vocation.
From the American essayist Annie Dillard: "Who can read what the wind-blown sand writes on the desert rock? I read that all things live by a generous power and dance to a mighty tune; or I read...that all things are scattered and hurled."
Each of us must ask: Will we live by a generous power and dance to a mighty tune, or will we be scattered and hurled?