“Before I begin my speech, I have something to admit. I struggled with this speech. It was inordinately difficult to find something to say about this event that will be appropriate. The great fear I had was in saying something too sentimental, or too warrior like, or too ethnocentric, too primal, or simply too much. I wasn’t sure what I should say or to whom I should address this speech. I struggled - it was difficult. I am not going to tell you that I succeeded in meandering around those concepts or that I found an answer, I will just tell you that the task I was set to accomplish weighed greatly upon my thinking. In fact I am reminded of the story of Harlan Ellison, the science-fiction novelist, who tells a story in SEPTEMBER 11: West Coast Writers Approach Ground Zero of being invited to appear on the TV show ‘’Politically Incorrect’’ just weeks after the attacks. Ellison accepted, eager to promote his name and books, but then realized shortly before the taping that he had nothing to say, and begged off. The producers went ape, but Ellison stood fast. There is such a thing as heroic modesty. I thought at first that I too should stand fast, be modest, that there was nothing to say. But being silent also involves choosing not to act and so I will attempt to try to give some meaning to these horrible events.

“That we were all affected by the events of September 11, 2001 probably goes without saying. The fact that we are here trying to commemorate, observe, worship or mark this day is evidence of our concern and care. We all want to do something. But we don’t know what. We all want to restore the lives of those lost in this tragedy, but that is impossible.

“We want there to be a memorial at the site. But we don’t know what it should look like. We place flags on our cars, send poems through email and instant messenger, talk about attacking Iraq and Afghanistan to ease our feelings and yet none of those things seem to complete our grief, anger, sadness, frustration and feelings of ambivalence.

“The central question that occupies our mind at this moment is ‘how should we remember?’  That is, how do we take the reality of September 11, 2001 and make and create meaning out of such a horrible event? And as difficult as that problem looms maybe it is also the answer. The ambiguity of our language, the unknowingness of what to do- the plurality of our thoughts-our different agendas, standards, language, cultures, race and genders are an indication that we are still struggling with how it is that we return to this event. We have not resolved our initial puzzlement of how to interpret this event. Maybe what we need is to allow this incompleteness to reflect who we are. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century isn’t it all right to say we don’t know the answers, we are not autonomous, and that our idealism has been harmed? Isn’t it all right for our language to be uncertain for the words not yet formed or created? Isn’t it all right for us to disagree about the nature of our event and to still gather together to focus as one?

“To my mind the problem with asking how should we remember is that we still haven’t forgot. We don’t know how to achieve a catharsis. It is simply too soon to do that. It is impossible to set this event in proper historical context, events move too quickly -after all it may be tomorrow that we attack Iraq. An all out war will indeed place new meaning, new perspective and new understanding on this event. That leaves us feeling like flowers left over after a funeral, they represented our grief and yet they do not last. If we are seeking something more permanent more lasting more representative of us all then we will have to wait, to listen, to discuss, to argue, to change and allow our ambivalence to allow us to learn. At this time inertia can be a recognition of our life force.

“Suffering can allow us to think through sorrow. Albert Einstein once remarked that with the arrival of the atomic age everything changed except our thinking. Unfortunately that remark is true.

“Maybe this new age of terrorism and the horrible events of September 11th are a way of forcing us to think in a new way. The point of this world in which we are stricken with plurality and ambiguity is to accept those feelings and learn to change our world. The days of Western dreams of domination, mastery and certainty are over. We must learn to hope for something. It may be less than we think we deserve but it may be more than we usually allow ourselves to envision, much less act upon. The alternative is not an escape into the transient pleasures of irony or a flight into despair and cynicism. The alternative is that we must fight for hope.

          “Whoever fights for hope, fights on behalf of us all. Whoever acts on that hope is in a manner worthy of a human being. We can choose? We can pray, observe, converse, and act in solidarity and with hope. Or we can remain silent-and destroy ourselves. Allow ourselves this time for ambiguity- But choose hope.”

--Lewis and Clark Professor Jim Price
at the 9/11 Observance
on 9-11-02