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Emotions run high as US remembers 9/11 attack
Source: Agencies |
September 12, 2011, Monday
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The names of the September 11 dead, some called out by children barely old enough to remember their fallen mothers and fathers, echoed across ground zero yesterday in a haunting but hopeful tribute on the 10th anniversary of the terror attack.
"God is our refuge and strength," President Barack Obama said, quoting the Bible.
Weeping relatives of the victims streamed into a newly opened memorial and placed pictures and flowers beside names etched in bronze. Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, bowed their heads and touched the inscriptions.
Obama, standing behind bulletproof glass and before the white oak trees of the memorial, read the Bible passage after a moment of silence at 8:46 am, when the first jetliner slammed into the north tower 10 years ago.
The New York ceremony was the centerpiece of a day of remembrance across the country. It was a chance to reflect on a decade that changed American life, including two wars and the overhaul of everyday security at airports and in big cities.
In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta observed a moment of silence at 9:37 am, marking the time a jet struck the center of the nation's military. He paid tribute to 6,200 members of the US military who have died in the Iraq and Afghan wars.
In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a choir sang at the Flight 93 National Memorial, and a crowd of 5,000 listened to a reading of the names of 40 passengers and crew killed aboard the plane a decade ago.
In New York, family members began reading the names of 2,983 victims – 2,977 killed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, and six killed in the first terror attack on the trade center, a truck bomb in 1993.
"You will always be my hero," Patricia Smith, 12, said of her mother.
Nicholas Gorki remembered his father, "who I never met because I was in my mother's belly. I love you, Father. You gave me the gift of life, and I wish you could be here to enjoy it with me."
Peter Negron, 21, whose father worked on the 88th floor of the north tower, said that in the decade since the attack, he had tried to teach his younger brother lessons he had learned from their father.
"I decided to become a forensic scientist," Negron said. "I hope that I can make my father proud of the young men my brother and I have become. I miss you so much, Dad."
Bush quoted a letter from President Abraham Lincoln to a mother who lost all five of her sons in the Civil War.
"I pray that our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement," the former president said.
Obama and Bush were joined by their wives as they walked up to one of the two reflecting pools built over the towers' footprints, part of a September 11 memorial that was opened for relatives of the victims.
Some family members held children on their backs who were not yet born when the towers were attacked.
As the sun rose, an American flag fluttered over six stories of the rising 1 World Trade Center. The sky was clear blue with scattered white clouds and a light breeze, not unlike the Tuesday morning 10 years ago.
The site looked utterly different than it had for any other September 11 anniversary: Along with the names in bronze, there were two manmade waterfalls directly on the footprints of the towers, surrounded by dozens of white oak trees.
Elijah Portillo, 17, whose father was killed in the attack, said he had never wanted to attend the anniversary because he thought he would feel angry. But this time was different, he said.
"Time to be a big boy," Elijah said. "Time to not let things hold you back. Time to just step out into the world and see how things are."
The anniversary arrived with security officials in New York and Washington on alert. Ahead of the anniversary, the federal government had warned local authorities of a tip about a possible car-bomb plot linked to al-Qaida.
Remembrances around the nation and world marked a decade of longing for loved ones lost in the attack.
The anniversary revived memories of a September morning when terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and a fourth plane crashed into a field in rural western Pennsylvania. Of heroism and Samaritans and unthinkable fear. And of nearly 3,000 killed at the hands of a global terror network led by Osama bin Laden, himself now dead.
People across America planned to gather to pray at cathedrals in their greatest cities and to lay roses before fire stations in their smallest towns. Around the world, commemorations took place.
Obama was to attend events at all three 9/11 sites and was to speak at an evening service at the Kennedy Center.
"God is our refuge and strength," President Barack Obama said, quoting the Bible.
Weeping relatives of the victims streamed into a newly opened memorial and placed pictures and flowers beside names etched in bronze. Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, bowed their heads and touched the inscriptions.
Obama, standing behind bulletproof glass and before the white oak trees of the memorial, read the Bible passage after a moment of silence at 8:46 am, when the first jetliner slammed into the north tower 10 years ago.
The New York ceremony was the centerpiece of a day of remembrance across the country. It was a chance to reflect on a decade that changed American life, including two wars and the overhaul of everyday security at airports and in big cities.
In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta observed a moment of silence at 9:37 am, marking the time a jet struck the center of the nation's military. He paid tribute to 6,200 members of the US military who have died in the Iraq and Afghan wars.
In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a choir sang at the Flight 93 National Memorial, and a crowd of 5,000 listened to a reading of the names of 40 passengers and crew killed aboard the plane a decade ago.
In New York, family members began reading the names of 2,983 victims – 2,977 killed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001, and six killed in the first terror attack on the trade center, a truck bomb in 1993.
"You will always be my hero," Patricia Smith, 12, said of her mother.
Nicholas Gorki remembered his father, "who I never met because I was in my mother's belly. I love you, Father. You gave me the gift of life, and I wish you could be here to enjoy it with me."
Peter Negron, 21, whose father worked on the 88th floor of the north tower, said that in the decade since the attack, he had tried to teach his younger brother lessons he had learned from their father.
"I decided to become a forensic scientist," Negron said. "I hope that I can make my father proud of the young men my brother and I have become. I miss you so much, Dad."
Bush quoted a letter from President Abraham Lincoln to a mother who lost all five of her sons in the Civil War.
"I pray that our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement," the former president said.
Obama and Bush were joined by their wives as they walked up to one of the two reflecting pools built over the towers' footprints, part of a September 11 memorial that was opened for relatives of the victims.
Some family members held children on their backs who were not yet born when the towers were attacked.
As the sun rose, an American flag fluttered over six stories of the rising 1 World Trade Center. The sky was clear blue with scattered white clouds and a light breeze, not unlike the Tuesday morning 10 years ago.
The site looked utterly different than it had for any other September 11 anniversary: Along with the names in bronze, there were two manmade waterfalls directly on the footprints of the towers, surrounded by dozens of white oak trees.
Elijah Portillo, 17, whose father was killed in the attack, said he had never wanted to attend the anniversary because he thought he would feel angry. But this time was different, he said.
"Time to be a big boy," Elijah said. "Time to not let things hold you back. Time to just step out into the world and see how things are."
The anniversary arrived with security officials in New York and Washington on alert. Ahead of the anniversary, the federal government had warned local authorities of a tip about a possible car-bomb plot linked to al-Qaida.
Remembrances around the nation and world marked a decade of longing for loved ones lost in the attack.
The anniversary revived memories of a September morning when terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and a fourth plane crashed into a field in rural western Pennsylvania. Of heroism and Samaritans and unthinkable fear. And of nearly 3,000 killed at the hands of a global terror network led by Osama bin Laden, himself now dead.
People across America planned to gather to pray at cathedrals in their greatest cities and to lay roses before fire stations in their smallest towns. Around the world, commemorations took place.
Obama was to attend events at all three 9/11 sites and was to speak at an evening service at the Kennedy Center.
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