Reading of 9/11 names to return

Families of 9/11 victims will once again read their names out loud to commemorate this year’s 20th anniversary of the World Trade Center attack, a year after the COVID pandemic divided people over how to remember the fallen, organizers said.

With coronavirus restrictions easing and more people getting vaccinated, groups putting together the ceremony said they are more comfortable with an event that allows families to gather at the memorial site in lower Manhattan and read names into the quiet air.

In 2020, the name-reading portion of the program was cancelled to keep participants from gathering in small crowds. The decision outraged some victims’ relatives, as well as police and fire unions who pointed out that construction sites around the city had been deemed safe to reopen months earlier.

Another group, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, even held an alternative ceremony several blocks away and allowed victims’ relatives to read names while social distancing.

But this year will be different. “In a few months’ time, 20 years will have passed since our nation was attacked on September 11,” former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the board chairman of the Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, said in a statement.

“We suffered a great tragedy that day and for the weeks and months that followed. We mourned the victims of the attacks and promised to never forget.”

Organizers said reading the 3,000 names out loud during the ceremony instead of having them prerecorded will be a comfort to the still-grieving families.

“In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing challenges facing our nation and the global community, the resilience, compassion and hope demonstrated two decades ago in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks offer invaluable lessons now,” museum CEO Alice M. Greenwald said.

“During this 20th anniversary year, it is our privilege to share these lessons with a new generation, teach them about the ongoing repercussions of the 9/11 attacks and inspire them with the idea that, even in the darkest of times, we can come together, support one another and find the strength to renew and rebuild.”