Remarks by Professor Gretchen Kalonji, Denice Denton's partner

“Good morning everyone. I’m very, very grateful that you’re all able to be here today so we can honor Denice together as a community. Of course we’ve had a terrible loss.

We lost a brave, noble, an incredibly effective warrior. But instead of focusing on that loss, I think we need to focus on how to transform that loss into a new and more powerful force for good.

So. What’s our secret weapon? Perhaps not so secret when we’re in this room together and you can feel the vibrations. But our true ace-in-the-hole asset is love.

One of the most remarkable things in the past few days for me has been the outpouring— not only nationally, internationally—of these different clusters of Denice community.  People whose lives she touched and people who loved her very, very, deeply.

So, my thought is we need to find some new creative mechanisms to harness that love, to bundle it, to refocus it on a new concrete plan of action.

You know, Denice was a very pragmatic person. She didn’t just like to talk about things, she like to get things done! And so we might try to figure out how we might create the Denice D. Denton Love Action Network.

So, I talked to a number of our friends and colleagues, talked to some of the chancellors, talked to President Dynes about the idea of stepping back, doing some planning, and in the fall having a major national-level symposium in which we generate a concrete plan of action. And in which we try and harness the many, many people and communities who love Denice in some new and creative ways.

Denice, I know you’re listening now. A lucha continua.  We’re going to make you proud.”

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