Students at a candlelit vigil for victims of the recent attacks formed a tight circle around dozens of lit candles at the Sample Gates on Tuesday night. The candles illuminated signs on the ground that bore the phrases “We Are Beirut,” “Nous Sommes Paris” and “We Stand for Peace.”
“What ISIS wants is to divide us and put up walls between people of different nations and religions around the world,” senior Erik Troske said at the start of the vigil. “But we wanted to show solidarity with the French, the Lebanese, the Iraqi and with everyone in the world who is hurt by them.”
Troske and friends, many of whom are originally from France, organized the vigil on their own after hearing about the terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of people in Beirut, Baghdad and Paris last week.
It was originally only meant to be a small event, said senior Camille Chevalier, a student originally from France. However, they soon had the support of many of their friends and classmates as well as faculty.
“When you hear about something like this, you don’t know what to think, and you’re in utter shock,” Troske said. “Then that passes to anger, which passes to sadness, which passes to the desire to just be able to do something.”
Enough students attended the vigil that there were not enough candles for each person to hold one. Dozens of students and faculty members arrived to hear each other speak.
“They attacked concert halls, and they attacked places where people like to drink on Friday nights, but we will keep listening to music and keep going out with our friends, and we will not sink,” French exchange student Agatha Stopnicki said. “I have never been prouder to say that my home is in Paris, but America is my country as well, especially when we see the support you are all showing right now.”
More and more students spoke against fear and hatred as the vigil continued. Tunisian exchange student Maroua Abbes explained her wish for people to recognize the difference between Muslims and the terrorists of ISIS.
“They are trying to make us afraid in our schools, in our homes,” Abbes said. “Do not be afraid of them, and do not be afraid of anybody.”
Many other students used the opportunity to speak in support of Syrian refugees. Many of the refugees are facing heightened discrimination in the aftermath of the ISIS attacks, junior Dana Khabbaz said.
“Whatever we do, we must not be hateful people,” graduate student Dacha Tran said. “We don’t need more of that in this world. We must step back and be more creative than that.”
After the student speakers, there was a minute of silence to honor those who died around the world. Candles continued blow out from the wind, but each time, students bent down to relight them.
At the end of the vigil, Troske led the crowd in singing “La Marseillaise,” France’s national anthem.
“If you don’t know the words, that’s okay, you can hum along,” Troske said. “But we think this is a good song to sing right now. This is a song about freedom and bravery.”
