Vigil commemorates terror attacks

In the wake of multiple major terrorist attacks around the world, several Hopkins groups organized a vigil on Friday evening to provide a moment of reflection for students.

The event was held on the Beach and was organized by South Asian Students at Hopkins (SASH), the Johns Hopkins Muslim Association, the Hindu Student Council (HSC) and the Sikh Student Association (SSA).

Roughly 30 students congregated in a circle where several members of the organizing groups spoke words of support and expressed their condolences for the victims of the attacks in Lahore in Pakistan, Ankara in Turkey, Brussels in Belgium and Hilla in Iraq. Following this, there was a moment of silence.

Sophomore Sai Talluru of SASH was one of the main organizers of the event. She said a student’s suggestion sparked the idea for the vigil.

“Actually, what happened was someone asked SASH if maybe we should do something for the Lahore attacks and someone brought up meeting other groups, and I thought ‘Yeah, that’d definitely be something we’d be interested in doing,’”Talluru said. “So I reached out to the Muslim Student Association, and other groups got involved.”

Maliha Choudhury, a sophomore from the Muslim Student Association, spoke of how the numerous recent terrorist attacks inspired this vigil.

“We saw how there have been attacks in Ankara and Iraq and Brussels, and so I guess we wanted to show that Hopkins students care, and we just wanted to take a moment out of our busy lives... to remember those victims,” Choudhury said.

Sophomore Anwesha Dubey of the HSC and SASH noted that some students have family in the areas affected.

“We were trying... to have a moment, be it just five minutes or 10 minutes, for people to come and reflect,” Dubey said. “They may have family there; There are a lot of people at Hopkins from all those areas affected by the attacks, so that I wanted it for it to be a safe space for everyone, those who were affected and those who were not affected just to come and honor the victims.”

One of the major purposes of the event was to give Hopkins students a time to pause and reflect not only on the violence of the terrorist attacks but also on violence and suffering in general.

“We just wanted to give people a chance to reflect on the recent attacks whether they are Lahore, Ankara or Brussels but also the acts of violence and injustice around the world that we might not always recognize, that might not always get media attention,” Talluru said. “We wanted to reflect on these people, be grateful for what we have but also be conscious of what’s happening.”

While the attendees could not light their candles because of the windy day, many of the attendees and organizers of the vigil said the event was a success.

“Honestly, there wasn’t a huge goal for this event, even in terms of turnout; We just wanted people who wanted to reflect [to] get a chance to do that and seeing those people that are in support of doing that and spread some positivity and I think that happened,” Talluru said. “The wind was a little bit of an impediment to lighting candles, but that wasn’t a big deal. It’s the thought that counts.”

Choudhury echoed Talluru’s sentiments.

“It’s a success if even one Hopkins student is able to think and take time out of their day to think... about moving forward in their lives as students and how they can touch the lives of people outside of community at Hopkins,” Choudhury said. “I personally believe it was a success, and I know a lot of people in their hearts were thinking of victims, even if they weren’t able to come to the event.”

Another message from the event was how Hopkins students have the capacity to make a difference in the world to help others.

“Be aware of the suffering of other people. It could be all around the world, it could be in a community, but there are people who are suffering just everywhere,” Dubey said. “Hopkins is a place of brilliant people, and if every one of us is passionate about some cause, it will be rectified... If anything, passion is the thing that drives change.”

Senior Hannah Bunkin attended the event and spoke about how it was important to highlight attacks that were not covered by mainstream media.

“I came out to support the people who have been in horrible recent terrorist attacks all over the world and to acknowledge that it’s happening in many different places and not just the places that are being flashed across the front page of the news,” Bunkin said.

Bunkin also spoke highly of the organization of the event and how touching it was.

“I thought it was very well organized. It was a very low-key gathering, and I had a good experience. They said some really nice words about how we at Johns Hopkins are very privileged students and we might not always think about those in other places who might be dealing with issues very different from us,” Bunkin said. “So taking some time to close our eyes and reflect all together about the violence that is going on in the world and lifting ourselves out of our individual daily lives and concerns and getting into a broader framework of thinking about what we can possibly do to deal with these things.”