Friends,

As we mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, many of us will pause to remember that day; where we were, what we were doing, who we lost. And as we reflect, it is also important remember our Quaker testimonies rooted in peace, which challenge us to seek non-violent responses to conflict. 

We post for you the potent remarks of Earlham’s Paul Lacey, which we published a decade ago. A weighty Quaker voice and a revered educator, Paul’s hope for us “to cherish one another in love, to persist in working for justice and the end of violence, to try to practice the gospel of peace,” remains at the heart of Earlham.

“And having done all, to stand.” 

Remarks of Professor Emeritus Paul Lacey 
Community Meeting, September 12, 2001  

We hear from our national leaders, our broadcasters and people on the street that we are at war. The World Trade Towers are described, without exaggeration, as like battlefields. Trying to lift our spirits, television commentators tell us we have experienced another Pearl Harbor, and quote Admiral Yamamoto, who planned that attack, that it had “awakened a sleeping giant.” We are assured that our enemies will be brought to justice, and that we will make no distinction between those who planned these attacks and the nations and groups which aid and protect them. This is what war is like.    

Yesterday, as I stood with so many of you at the vigil around The Heart, feeling that we were sharing our confusion, pain, anger, fear, grateful to be there and deeply sad at how much of my life I have spent on vigil lines, protest lines, praying for peace and justice, a fragment from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians came to my mind — “and having done all, to stand.”    

The phrase seems both helpful and puzzling. Have we done all? So much is out of our hands. Somebody else decides that we are at war. You and I know that any of us, any of those we love most in the world, could have been among the helpless passengers in those planes, the helpless workers in those buildings. Some of us will have lost loved ones in yesterday’s horror. Yes, we stand, but what were we to do beforehand, and what are we to do now?    

The whole passage from Ephesians 6:13 says: “take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may withstand in the evil time, and having done all, to stand.” It comes as part of another declaration of war, a war St. Paul says is against principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world. We will hear language like that often in the near future — our enemies are utterly evil, rulers of darkness, unworthy to live. It is a way to help us with our fear, by turning it into hatred.   

But it is worthwhile to consider what the armor is that St. Paul recommends we put on. It includes truth, righteousness and the gospel of peace. It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. You and I need to grasp hold of the truths we know, to live them so that they can protect us. The truth that people in despair do terrible things. The truth that revenge can never satisfy the loss we feel at the death of loved ones. The truth that human beings are children of God who can behave nobly and lovingly, if we can find the ways to let them — and us. Righteousness, meaning ways of living which bring justice and peace, the righteousness Isaiah prays will pour down from the skies. Not self-righteousness nor self-justification, but righteousness. Not the language of hatred and revenge, but the gospel of peace.    

The armor St. Paul talks about does not protect our bodies from guns or bombs, but it may protect us from the evil time, the evil it would be so easy to internalize in order to overcome our terror. You and I know how vulnerable we, and those we love, are. We will have to remain vulnerable, but we can do what is possible for us — to reaffirm the truths we trust, to cherish one another in love, to persist in working for justice and the end of violence, to try to practice the gospel of peace. If someone else has decided we are at war, we nonetheless have a choice of the weapons we will use. We can do what it is possible for us to do, and having done all, to stand.    

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Paul Lacey, professor emeritus of English, joined the Earlham faculty in 1960 and retired at the conclusion of the 2000-01 academic year. Over the decades he has taught humanities, introduction to the study of literature, and poetry, among other courses. In 1972, Paul was appointed the College's provost and in 1973-74 was Earlham's acting president. Throughout his Earlham years he has been a guiding voice for the College and valued friend and adviser to his colleagues. His teaching career has encompassed research and writing, including the book The Inner War, a critical analysis of six modern poets. Paul has written widely about the foundation and meaning of Quaker education. In 1992, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education named Paul Lacey "Indiana Professor of the Year."