NEW YORK (AP) — Ten years on, Americans come together Sunday where the World Trade Center soared, where the Pentagon stands as a fortress once breached, where United Airlines Flight 93 knifed into the earth.
They will gather to pray in cathedrals in our greatest cities and to lay roses before fire stations in our smallest towns, to remember in countless ways the anniversary of the most devastating terrorist attacks since the nation's founding, and in the process mark the milestone as history itself.
As in earlier observances, bells will toll again to mourn the loss of those killed in the attacks. Americans will lay eyes on new memorials in lower Manhattan, rural Pennsylvania and elsewhere, concrete symbols of the resolve to remember and rebuild.
But much of the weight of this year's ceremonies lies in what will largely go unspoken — the anniversary's role in prompting Americans to consider how the attacks changed them and the larger world and the continuing struggle to understand 9/11's place in the lore of the nation.
"A lot's going on in the background," said Ken Foote, author of "Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy," examining the role that veneration of sites of death and disaster plays in modern life. "These anniversaries are particularly critical in figuring out what story to tell, in figuring out what this all means.
"It forces people to figure out what happened to us," he said.
On Saturday in rural western Pennsylvania, more than 4,000 people began to tell the story again.
At the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial near the town of Shanksville, former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden joined the families of the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 who fought back against their hijackers.
"The moment America's democracy was under attack our citizens defied their captors by holding a vote," Bush said. "The choice they made would cost them their lives."
The passengers and crew gave "the entire country an incalculable gift: They saved the capital from attack," an untold amount of lives and denied al-Qaida the symbolic victory of "smashing the center of American government," Clinton said.
They were "ordinary people given no time at all to decide and they did the right thing," he said. "And 2,500 years from now, I hope and pray to God that people will still remember this."
The Pennsylvania memorial park is years from completion. But the dedication and a service to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks are critical milestones, said Sally Ware, one of the volunteer "ambassadors" who has worked as a guide at the site since the disaster.
Ware, whose home was rocked when the jet crashed two miles away, recalled how hundreds of people flocked to the site in the days afterward to leave their own mementos and memorials. She began volunteering after finding one along the side of the road — a red rose placed atop a flight attendant's uniform.
"It really bothered me. I thought someone has to take care of this," said Ware, whose daughter is a flight attendant. Now, a decade later, she said the memorial may do little to ease the grief of the families of those who died in the crash. But the weekend's ceremonies recall a story with far broader reach.
The ceremonies honor those who "fought the first battle against terrorism — and they won," Ware said. "It's something I don't want to miss. It's become a part of my life."
On Sunday, the nation's focus turns to ceremonies at the Pentagon, just outside Washington, D.C., and in lower Manhattan for the dedication of the national Sept. 11 memorial. President Barack Obama planned to attend ceremonies at all three sites and was scheduled to speak at a Sunday evening service at the Kennedy Center.
The New York ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m., with a moment of silence 16 minutes later — coinciding with the exact time when the first tower of the trade center was struck by a hijacked jet. And then, one by one, the reading of the names of the 2,977 killed on Sept. 11 — in New York, at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania.
They include the names of 37 of Lt. Patrick Lim's fellow officers from the police department of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Lim, assigned to patrol the trade center with an explosives detection dog, rushed in to the north tower after it was hit to help evacuate workers. He and a few others survived despite still being inside a fifth-floor stairwell when the building fell.
In the years since, Lim said he has wrestled with survivor's guilt, realizing the last of those he'd urged ahead of him were crushed when the tower collapsed. He took shelter in selective memory, visualizing the ground covered with women's shoes amid the destruction.
"That's how I got through that, because what was attached to the shoes was a lot worse," Lim said.
The 10th anniversary has forced Lim to revisit an experience he's worried too many people have pushed from their minds. But the approach of Sunday's ceremonies has convinced him of the value of revisiting Sept.11, both for himself and others.
When it happened, talking about the events of that day "wasn't easy for me. This was very difficult. But it became ... a catharsis," he said. "What I want is for people to remember what happened."
And so arrives a weekend dedicated to remembrance, with hundreds of ceremonies across the country and around the globe — from a memorial Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York to a ceremony featuring nine-stories-tall replicas of the twin towers on a plaza in Paris.
It's easy to forget: As much as 9/11 was an American tragedy, it had a profound affect far beyond U.S. shores. Many who died were citizens of other countries. And the attacks set in motion a decade of wars, more terrorist attacks in Europe and Asia and a worldwide law enforcement offensive that has netted tens of thousands of suspected terrorists.
On Sunday, for all the magnitude of the attacks, some of the most powerful ceremonies will likely be the smallest and most personal.
In Newtown, Conn., retired American Stock Exchange floor broker Howard Lasher planned a ceremony Sunday morning under the canopy of six maple trees standing alongside his gravel driveway; their trunks are painted to resemble an American flag.
Lasher commissioned the painting in the weeks just after Sept. 11, 2001, as a tribute to nine Amex colleagues and the son of another who died inside the trade center.
"I wanted something that would reach out to people, that people would not forget," Lasher said of the memorial, which has since become a local landmark. "When people drive by here, I want them to envision what this country has been, for all its greatness, and that we should not forget the people who were lost that day and in all the wars, because they died defending what it represents."
And in Brown City, Mich. — with a population of about 1,300 and no direct connection to the attacks — firefighters plan to lay 343 roses on a 15,000-pound steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center, in honor of their New York City brethren who perished in the disaster.
Since venturing to New York in June to claim the beam and bring it home, the Michigan firefighters have finished building a brick plaza, lighted around the clock and crowned by three flagpoles. Already, this has become a local shrine, Chief Jim Groat said.
A few days ago, a couple from St. Joseph, Mich. who happened to be driving through, pulled into the fire station lot when they spotted a sign for the memorial. Groat came out to speak with them and the woman explained that she was a flight attendant for American Airlines who'd been aboard a plane the morning of the attacks.
Then she turned to face the steel beam from the trade center.
"She just stood there and cried. She said she was just honored that somebody still cares," Groat recalled. The chief observed silently, before offering an invitation.
"Will I see you here on Sept. 11?" he asked.
"I'll be here," she answered.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
A changed America: Marking 10 years since 9/11 - Yahoo! News
After Sept. 11, four tasks for religion - Guest Voices - The Washington Post
Posted at 11:48 AM ET, 09/10/2011After Sept. 11, four tasks for religion
By Rabbi Eric YoffieTen years ago this weekend, a terror attack changed the world and changed America forever. It left Americans frightened and dismayed, and filled American hearts with bewilderment and enduring rage.
We stand here today as representatives of America’s great religious traditions. What has been our role in healing our nation?
I suggest that we have had, and still have, four major tasks.
Our first task is to help America remember the victims and to offer their families comfort and healing. Sometimes, let’s admit, 9/11 has become a slogan or a cause rather than a human tragedy. But we in the religious world are not distracted; we focus on the lives snuffed out and on those who suffered most. We pray for the bereaved and extend a loving hand to the injured and traumatized. We know that news may move on, but for those affected, the loss and the pain remain.
Our second task is to educate about the meaning of 9/11. And education means that religious communities must confront the extremists in their midst; if we cower in the face of fanatic minorities, we are lost. This is true for Muslims, and it is true for us all. And education also means that when we look at 9/11, we must absolutely refuse to justify, excuse, or explain away what happened.
The attacks of 9/11 were acts of unmitigated evil, carried out by men who polluted religion by coupling it with violence. As religious leaders, we know something about this; after all, the connection between religion and violence is set out in the story of Cain and Abel at the very beginning of the Biblical story of humankind.
And we know, better than anyone, that there is no such thing as murdering your way to salvation; we know that ruthless acts, calculated to produce shock and outrage, are an affront to God and to everything we hold dear; we know that whatever explanations might now be offered, those responsible for this evil are those who chose to kill in God’s name.
And because it is hard to comprehend evil on such a scale, when we talk about 9/11, we try to talk about flesh-and-blood people-like two-year old Christine Hanson, sitting on her father’s lap on United Airlines Flight 175 on her way to Disneyland. We remind Americans that taking Christine’s life was blasphemous and repugnant; and we remind them too of the profound reverence that we all must have for human life and the integrity of creation.
Our third task is to resist with all of our might the view that the extremist fringe that carried out and supported this violent act is the voice of Islam in America or in the world.
To give you a sense of how difficult this is, permit me to say a few words about what is happening here in America.
I believe that America has done a better job than most of the world, including Christian Europe, of embracing its Muslim citizens and welcoming its Muslim immigrants. What makes the United States unique is our religiosity and our pluralism. Americans respect religion and believe in God, and they eventually learn to respect religions different from their own. Add to that the great principle of church-state separation and we can be confident that for Muslim Americans, like all other Americans, full religious freedom will eventually be assured.
Nonetheless, there is cause for concern.
The events of 9/11 and other events since, such as the Park51 controversy, opened a door that some have been quick to rush through. Ten years after 9/11, negative views of Muslim Americans continue to rise. Ten years after 9/11, it has somehow become respectable to verbally attack Muslims and Islam in America. Vital distinctions are being blurred by people who should know better. I am referring to distinctions between the radical, fanatic version of Islam, held by a tiny minority of Moslems, and centrist Islam; I am referring to distinctions between the moderate majority and the extremists on the margins.
There are very real consequences when entire populations are represented in the public imagination by their worst elements, when the sins of the few are applied to the group as a whole.
I have watched in astonishment as prominent politicians, including candidates for President of the United States, have found it politically opportune to peddle divisive anti-Muslim bigotry.
And if all of this were not enough, we have been witness to a paranoid fantasy about Sharia law taking over America by stealth. In the last year, more than two dozen states have proposed legislation outlawing the use of Shariah law in state courts. Louisiana, Tennessee and Oklahoma have already approved such measures, which I do not hesitate to call anti-Muslim.
When I hear such things, I can barely contain myself. What if a state were to put forward a bill that referenced Jewish law or Canon law in a similar way? Jews and Catholics would be outraged, and rightly so. To say that these laws are unnecessary is an understatement of monumental proportions. Have these lawmakers not heard of the First Amendment, which already prohibits courts from adopting any kind of religious code as law of the land?
These laws serve only to do two things: single out Muslims as second-class citizens and undermine the Constitution of the United States.
Many Muslim Americans that I know are feeling beleaguered right now, and I would be surprised if they were not.
But now the good news: this is a great and wonderful country. And with President Obama and President Bush before him leading the way, most Americans still see this country as a secure sanctuary that safeguards our right to be different and to follow our own religious path.
Yes, troubling things are happening now, due in part to the economic climate. As we know, economic uncertainty is often a fertile ground for hatred.
But we will not accept excuses. And the fact is that good people are fighting back. The people in this room are fighting back. And most Americans, with the right leadership and inspiration, will be proud to stand with the forces of inclusion and to oppose the forces of intolerance in this land.
And that brings me to our fourth and final task: to offer hope, and faith.
This is a difficult time for America. Politics is inherently divisive, and never more so than now. When everyone is shouting; when every voice on talk radio or cable news is trying to be the loudest and the most shocking; when it seems that our problems are too great to solve and our hatred too deep to cure, it is the task of religion to offer healing and a sense of the common good.
And when our Muslim neighbors are under attack, the best way to do that is not with theology, but with personal friendships, and with concrete, grassroots, hands-on projects that bring us together. And that is exactly what we have been doing, and we will give you the details in a minute.
And our message today is: timing is everything. The time for coalitions of decency to come together to fight for our Muslim neighbors and for religious understanding is now, when it is needed most.
This is our challenge: When the fires of intolerance are spreading, will we raise our voices in protest? Will we stand with Muslim Americans when emotions are raw and the danger is greatest? We will, I believe. It won’t be easy, it will take work, but we will do so. Because that is the moral course.
So I end with the hope - that is our common hope - that Muslims, Jews, and Christians will not permit fanaticism to grow or prejudice to harden; that as the sacred day of 9/11 approaches, we will honor the memory of those who died by teaching our children to honor life; and that here, in America, as seekers of God and children of Abraham, we will refuse to grant a victory to those who work to divide us; that here in America, we will reclaim our common heritage and find a common path.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie is president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
By Rabbi Eric Yoffie | 11:48 AM ET, 09/10/2011
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AFP: Turnout touches hearts of Flight 93 families
Turnout touches hearts of Flight 93 familiesBy Robert MacPherson (AFP) – 2 hours ago
SHANKSVILLE, Pennsylvania — For the Flight 93 families, the most touching aspect of Saturday's dedication of a national memorial to their loved ones wasn't the speechmaking or musical tributes.
It was the crowd.
Perhaps a thousand ordinary Americans -- no one was keeping official count -- turned out to join them on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and to let them know that they, too, are not forgotten.
With no prompting, they broke into applause as they solemnly departed the 2-1/2 hour ceremony along an elongated black asphalt walkway that sweeps past the daisy-dotted spot where the hijacked Boeing 757 went down.
"It's an emotional day. It's overwhelming to see everyone here," said Gordon Hasenei, whose aunt, retiree Patricia Cushing, boarded the ill-fated United Airlines flight in Boston for a holiday in San Francisco.
"This makes me proud to be an American," added Reverend Kenneth Mills, uncle of United flight attendant CeeCee Ross Lyles and one of few African-Americans present, with unabashed patriotism.
Organisers sealed off a seated section for the Flight 93 families in front of the shaded dias where former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton reaffirmed US determination to defeat global terrorism.
The general public -- predominantly from this rural corner of Pennsylvania, a traditional American landscape of small farms, tidy villages and sweeping hills -- unfolded leisure chairs in the muddy soil around the perimeter.
Many sported patriotic T-shirts and held American flags. Nobody flinched when a giant screen that was supposed to project the goings-on on stage blew a circuit and went blank, sending a puff of smoke into the air.
Some applauded when Bush took to the stage, but Clinton gave the more impassioned speech, saying that by rising up against the hijackers, the passengers and crew of Flight 93 had denied Al-Qaeda "a symbolic victory."
It is believed the hijackers intended to plow Flight 93 into the Capitol building in Washington, about 20 minutes' flying time from Shanksville, just as their cohorts did earlier that day at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Alice Hoagland, who lost her PR executive son Mark Bingham, comes to Shanksville every September 11, but this year she opted not to trek across the rain-soaked field to the spot where Flight 93 slammed into the ground.
Instead, for the first time, she touched a tall, finely polished and newly installed granite tablet bearing Bingham's name -- identical to the 39 others lined up along Flight 93's final flight path as a key part of the memorial.
"It's a healing process and I expect to go through it through the rest of my life," Bingham told AFP afterwards.
Several airline pilots in uniform turned out as well, including Chris Clark of Delta Airlines, a friend of Flight 93's first officer LeRoy Homer from their days together flying cargo planes in the US air force.
Does Clark worry about another 9/11-style hijacking when he steps in the cockpit? No, he replied. "I feel something like this won't happen again. They" -- meaning Al-Qaeda -- "have played their card."
Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
New One World Trade Center Rises As Memorial And Workplace - Secaucus New Jersey News | Secaucus New Jersey News
New One World Trade Center Rises As Memorial And Workplace
One World Trade Center Rises As Memorial
The new One World Trade Center skyscraper towers more than 80 stories above ground as it inches to its planned 1,776 foot height — symbolic of the date of America’s independence. The memorial plaza is ready and the neighborhood has enjoyed a revival making it a trendy Manhattan place to live. Today, what remains with the Twin Towers is a memorial and a workplace. A new One World Trade Center (WTC) will rise in the site as a memorial and a workplace. Mr. Larry Silverstein, the World Trade Center’s developer vowed to rebuild two days after the Twin Towers collapsed. The event was followed by one of the most fearsome real estate disputes of recent times. Instead of completing the building all over again in a sweeping manner as a sign for standing up from the threat, the political and financial battle drew in elected officials and insurance companies to delay the construction for years.
Silverstein Holds Ceremonial Keys To WTC
Developer Larry Silverstein holds the keys to the new One World Trade Center. The opportunity happened when the when the executives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey presented Silverstein the keys of WTC on July 24, 2001. The construction is finally proceeding swiftly, with the Sept. 11 memorial opening to the public and the first office towers scheduled to be finished by 2013. The final financial tally won’t be possible for years and will depend largely on whether millions of square feet of office space are filled.
The Most Expensive Tower In U.S.
The Port Authority got ownership of the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center, which is tallest office building on the site. Due to high security in that building, the cost ballooned to more than $3 billion, making it the most expensive office tower in the U.S. Mr. Silverstein is expecting to gain big returns if the buildings under construction eventually fill up with tenants. His group owns one of the skyscrapers set to be finished in 2013 and has the rights to build two others. It put about $125 million of equity into the original deal and got all of that initial investment back as part of another settlement with the Port Authority and insurers.
Threat To New York And D.C.
Ten years has passed after the September 11 attack, New Yorkers have learned to move on from the tragic event. Now that the anniversary of the 9/11 attack is closing in, the New York police heightened its security in New York on Friday in response to a credible but unverified threat of an al Qaeda plot to attack the city again. According to sources, the plan to attack is set on the anniversary of the World Trade Center towers by hijaked airplanes.
Ceremony At One World Trade Center
The ceremony on Sunday includes moments of silence to mark the time when hijacked passenger planes hit the Twin Towers as well as when they collapsed. A moment of silence will also be given to victims of terrorism marking when hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon in Washington and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush will be among dignitaries joining victims’ families to hear the reading of the names of those who died on September 11.
In this article you learned that a new One World Trade Center skyscraper towers of more than 80 stories above ground will stand on the place where the Twin Towers attacked by terrorist once stood. The attack on September 11 was a ground breaking and a life-changing event for all the Americans. The world was on the watch to see what will occur after the crisis.
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Bank of America retrenches, plans to cut 40,000 jobs - The Washington Post
LOS ANGELES — Bank of America is preparing to slash 40,000 or more jobs nationwide, a dramatic retrenchment that reflects the deepening woes of the country’s largest bank and the magnitude of the U.S. economic slowdown.
The layoffs will come mainly from the Bank of America’s sprawling consumer-banking operations. The bank’s workforce numbers nearly 300,000.
