Taking the position that patriotism can threaten democracy, Nicholas C. Murphy ’02 wrote, “If we let our sorrow and rage blind us, if we begin to sacrifice those things that bind us together as Americans and perhaps more importantly human beings for the sake of retribution, we have compounded the tragedy one hundred fold, for we have then allowed a few murderous zealots to undo in one day what we have worked almost 250 years to build.”

Quincy resident Jenny L. Pegg ‘03 said on the relatively new House Open list she’s “never seen anything quite like” the weekend’s debate.

“ I think the world is a complicated place in which it is hard to tell what the far-reaching consequences of the actions of people might be,” Pegg wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.