On Campus
UH grieves along with New York
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer
With several family members and friends in New York City, Atina Pascua watched last week's terrorist attacks unfold with an added amount of stress and concern.
She found herself stuck waiting for phone calls. She worried. She later learned that one member of her family had missed the bus to work, arrived late at the World Trade Center and watched the second airplane crash into the South Tower.
Like millions of other Americans, Pascua felt the urge to help, but found the distance from Hawai'i to the East Coast daunting.
As many Hawai'i residents went through the comforting rituals of giving to the Red Cross, attending memorial services or donating blood, she decided to send a message of aloha from Hawai'i to New York. With the help of a colleague, Pascua, who works in the service learning program at University of Hawai'i, rounded up all of the large, white rolls of paper she could find, located boxes of colorful markers and headed out to campus.
It proved cathartic for her, and for the hundreds of students, staff and faculty at UH-Manoa who scrawled their feelings of grief on the long scrolls of paper that wrapped around the fence line at Hawai'i Hall and lay in the grass in front of Bachman Hall.
"I just felt like I wanted to do something," Pascua said as she held out markers and asked passers-by if they wanted to write something. "This is the first time I have felt a little bit happy. It was a small thing, but I hope it gives them a chance to release some emotions."
Friday, many of the 3,000 people who participated in the campus-wide vigil and march paused to read the giant sympathy card and add their own thoughts. Some messages were rambling, others short. A few addressed victims of the attacks or wrote out the words to patriotic songs. At a campus with a large international student population, dozens of foreign language messages appeared.
Pascua plans to send the rolls of paper to one of the New York fire stations.
Among the anonymous messages that will go from Hawai'i to New York:
We shall not forget 9-11-2001.
God bless the whole world. Don't hate, just love.
Unite One Nation.
Together we remember you.
Part of my heart was destroyed, too. I love New York!
I was not able to make it home but my thoughts and prayers are with you.
Love and aloha from Hawai'i.
New Yorkers are tough! Hang in there, guys.
I don't know what to say. This is the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life. I just want to encourage all of the families, victims and anyone else touched by this tragedy. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. God won't let us down.
God bless all that need help, and God bless America.
I'm proud to be an American.
James, your death is installed in all of our memories. I am so in shock. I love you and will care for you. Wow I am in anger... How dare they!
In support and community.
Pray for peace. Prepare for war.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
