Vigil held for Pan Am 103
Candles shone brightly near the steps of Hendricks Chapel. As one blew out, John Crandall reminded the crowd: it is easy to blow out one candle but it’s important to keep the memories burning of the students lost in Pan Am 103.
‘We can leave this Quad, and carry their light and spirit with us,’ said Crandall, one of the 35 Remembrance Scholars chosen to commemorate the students who died.
A group of Syracuse University members gathered around the steps of Hendricks, holding white candles Tuesday night to remember the 35 SU students who died on Dec. 21, 1988, in the bombing of Pan Am 103.
The vigil was part of a student response to the Aug. 21 release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the bombing. The Scottish government released al-Megrahi, a Libyan, on compassionate grounds after he was given three months to live. Al-Megrahi arrived home to a large crowd after Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi sent a plane to pick up al-Megrahi.
The vigil also came the night before al-Gaddafi’s scheduled address to the United Nations.
‘It’s timely to do this now, especially after their leader embraced the bomber with a hero’s welcome on his return to Libya,’ said Bridget Schultz, SA’s public relations director.
Schultz, Jon Barnhart, Tyrone Shaw and Jennifer Altoff, four members of Student Association, worked with the Remembrance Scholars to organize the vigil.
The event’s tone was clear: remembrance and mourning trumped expressing rage.
‘We can do more with sorrow and memory than anger,’ said Barnhart, SA’s Student Engagement Committee chair.
Barnhart issued a greeting to begin the night. Remembrance Scholars then came forward to address the group.
Gregory Sides and Sandra Appiah, both Remembrance Scholars, read the names of the students killed in the bombing.
After Sides and Appiah read aloud, the crowd bowed their heads for a moment of silence. When students spoke again, they walked to the front of the crowd and talked about the importance of remembering the tragedy.
‘How touching it is to see all of these people remembering the tragedy that happened above the town of Lockerbie,’ said Alistair Inglis, a Lockerbie Scholar, as he spoke before the crowd.
Each year SU gives a scholarship to two students from Lockerbie, Scotland, to spend their freshman year studying at the university.
After everyone spoke, the crowd walked from Hendricks to the Remembrance Wall in front of the Hall of Languages. Students helped light each other’s candles, as wind blew them out along the way. The students laid their candles out along the semi-circular wall, and after a long silent pause, Barnhart thanked everyone for coming.
‘Events like this keep our two communities bonded,’ said Stefan Hanley, a Lockerbie Scholar.
While the main focus of the event was to honor and remember the lives lost, students chose to express their feelings on the release of the bomber.
‘His release and return home were like a slap in the face,’ Shaw said.
Sides said while he cannot truly determine his opinion on the release, he does think it creates an opportunity for discussion on campus about the terrorist attack.
Published on September 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm
