Americans join to mark 9/11
Americans looked back on 9/11 yesterday with tears and sombre tributes as President Donald Trump hailed ‘‘the moment when America fought back’’ on one of the hijacked planes used as weapons in the deadliest terror attack on US soil.
Victims’ relatives said prayers for their country, pleaded for national unity and pressed officials not to use the 2001 terror attacks as a political tool in a polarised nation.
Seventeen years after losing her husband, Margie Miller came from her suburban home to join thousands of relatives, survivors, rescuers and others on a misty morning at the memorial plaza where the World Trade Centre’s twin towers once stood.
‘‘To me, he is here. This is my holy place,’’ she said before the hours-long reading of the names of her husband, Joel Miller, and the nearly 3000 others killed when hijacked jets slammed into the towers, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.
The president and first lady Melania Trump joined an observance at the September 11 memorial near Shanksville, where one of the jetliners crashed after 40 passengers and crew members realised what was happening and several passengers tried to storm the cockpit.
Calling it ‘‘the moment when America fought back,’’ Trump said the fallen ‘‘took control of their destiny and changed the course of history’’.
They ‘‘joined the immortal ranks of American heroes,’’ said Trump.
At the Pentagon, Vice President Mike Pence recalled the heroism of service members and civilians who repeatedly went back into the Pentagon to rescue survivors.
The terrorists ‘‘hoped to break our spirit, and they failed,’’ he said.
At the United Nations, Security Council members stood for a moment of silence, led by US Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Hours after the ceremony, two powerful light beams soared into the night sky from lower Manhattan in the annual ‘‘Tribute in Light.’’
The 9/11 commemorations are by now familiar rituals, centred on reading the names of the dead.
But each year at ground zero, victims’ relatives infuse the ceremony with personal messages of remembrance, inspiration and concern.
For Nicholas Haros Jr., that concern is officials who make comparisons to 9/11 or invoke it for political purposes.
‘‘Stop. Stop,’’ implored Haros, who lost his 76-year-old mother, Frances. ‘‘Please stop using the bones and ashes of our loved ones as props in your political theatre. Their lives, sacrifices and deaths are worth so much more. Let’s not trivialise them.’’
Memorials to 9/11 continue to grow at Shanksville, where a newly dedicated Tower of Voices will eventually include a wind chime for each of the 40 people killed there, and ground zero, where work is to begin soon on a pathway honouring rescue and recovery workers.
It will serve as a way to recognise those who became sick or died from exposure to toxins released when the Trade Centre’s twin towers collapsed. Researchers have documented elevated rates of respiratory ailments, post-traumatic stress disorder and other illnesses among people who spent time in the rubble.
About 38,500 people have applied to a compensation fund, and over US$3.9 billion (NZ$5.98b) in claims have been approved.
Meanwhile, a subway station destroyed on 9/11 finally reopened Saturday. In June, doors opened at the 80-storey 3 World Trade Centre, one of several rebuilt office towers that have been constructed or planned at the site. – AP