Tsunami Relief:

Tsunami memorial taps the power of prayer

By Clifton B. Parker
Dateline Associate Editor

More than 200 people attended a solemn UC Davis memorial service Tuesday in remembrance of the nearly 160,000 who died in the Dec. 26 tsunami disaster. Student Yasmine Khan read a poignant poem of hers that began, “I never thought I’d learn to pronounce the word, ‘tsunami’ …” Khan, who is studying human development, also wrote:

The survivors dig the graves with their hands
but our hands reaching across the ocean
can in their own way be
as powerful, as majestic, as unstoppable
as the tsunami itself.

The one-hour memorial service took place in the Activities and Recreation Center. A minute's silence was observed and local religious leaders from different faiths including Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity offered prayers for the victims of the disaster.

In somber tones, the Rev. Tim Malone noted, “when you see people helping the least important, there you see God.” Rabbi Gregg Wolfe said one “discovers lightness after darkness,” and the Rev. Kristen Stoneking added that “God suffers with us.”

Other speakers included Hardev Singh Shergill, a Sikh; Ruth Asmundson, mayor of Davis; Maimul Khan, a Muslim community; Seicho Asahi, a Buddhist; Ardeshir Damania, a Zoroastrian, Larry Vanderhoef, chancellor; and Rahim Reed, associate executive vice chancellor for campus community relations. Daryl Paranada, an English major, said the memorial service should help “bring healing in the community.”