CLEMSON — Remembering September 11, 2001: Looking back-Looking forward toward compassion, peace and reconciliation will be a time of remembrance for all of those affected by that terrible day throughout the world, but more than that, we want it to be an inspirational call for compassion. The Charter for Compassion* and personal stories of people affected by 9/11 will be central themes. The program will be an hour long and the focus will be how we are all similar, rather than how we are all different. It is free and open to the public. There will be a reception after the program.

The program will open with music. David Wilcox, Music Director at St. Mark United Methodist Church, Seneca will direct his choir and the choir members from at least three other churches with accompaniment by Fran Snyder. Other musical selections will be played by Martha Schumpert, a local musician.

After everyone is welcomed to the event by Mayor Larry Abernathy and President Jim Barker, there will be more than a dozen greetings of peace given by members of our international community.

The program will continue with brief personal stories of how local individuals were affected by 9/11/2001.

We want the audience to gain insight into their lives. The speakers of the four personal stories will be Samia Hassan, an Egyptian-American student, Cindy Pury, a Psychology Professor, Ammar Ahmed, an International PhD student, and Ann Hampton, the mother of Capt. Kimberly Hampton who was the first female combat pilot killed by enemy fire in U.S. history. Ann Hampton’s story is particularly poignant as she has taken her grief in a positive direction by being in contact with women in Iraq, who also have lost children in the war.

There will be four readers of portions of the Charter for Compassion including Chris Heavner, Lutheran Campus Minister, Laura Conrad, pastor at Fort Presbyterian Church, Clemson, John Nieman, pastor of Holy Trinity Episcopal Parish, Clemson, and Melva James, a PhD student at Clemson.

There are nearly two dozen sponsors of the event including the City of Clemson and numerous entities at Clemson including the Office of the President, Office of Diversity, Rutland Institute for Ethics, Undergraduate Student Government, Clemson Campus Ministers Association, Intercultural Dialog Group, Osher Lifelong

Learning Institute, Strom Thurmond Institute, and Students for Religious Dialogue, and many faith communities including several Christian denominations, Islam, Judaism, and Unitarian Universalism.

Quote: “The message we want people to leave the event with is that compassion is the foundations of all religions and all moral codes. On this tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001, in a brief hour, we will acknowledge the past, but our goal is to affirm a shared future built on peace, compassion and understanding. “

Contacts for further information: Pat Zungoli pzngl@clemson.edu 864.207-1291; Peter Cohen pcohen@clemson.edu 864.650.5497; Samia Hassan samiaH@clemson.edu 864.280.0758; Cynthia Warner cynthiakwarner@mac.com 864.654.5079;

*More information on the charter for compassion can be found at http://charterforcompassion.org. The originator of the Charter, Karen Armstrong, religious historian, received a TED Award among many other accolades.