Somber crowds gather to reflect on 9/11
NEW YORK – Solemn crowds around the country gathered in silence Saturday for the 20th time to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that forever changed the nation.
Bells tolled to signify the moments each tower of the World Trade Center was hit 20 years ago. Family members clutched photos of loved ones and wiped tears from one another’s eyes. In New York City, twin beams of light reached 4 miles into the sky in a haunting reminder of where the towers once stood.
Ceremonies were held Saturday in New York City, at the Pentagon and outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to honor the dead.
As survivors, politicians, first responders and loved ones of those who died reflected on the anniversary, many praised the unity Americans showed and highlighted the importance of passing on the memory to those too young to remember it.
At a private ceremony for family of those killed after United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field outside Shanksville, former President George W. Bush recalled the unity and strength Americans showed and urged the country to put aside political views to come together again today.
“So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment,” Bush said. “On America’s day of trial and grief, I saw millions of people instinctively grab their neighbor’s hand and rally to the cause of one another.”
Bush, who was in office at the time, acknowledged that many alive today were not old enough to remember those moments, even though they now “owe a vast, unconscious debt” to the first responders and others who died in the attacks.
“For those too young to recall that clear September day, it is hard to describe the mix of feelings we experienced,” he said. “There was horror at the scale of destruction and awe at the bravery and kindness that rose to meet it.”
Former President Donald Trump skipped the official 9/11 memorial ceremonies and instead visited a fire station and police precinct in New York.
Saturday’s ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial included a reading of the names of each person who died, followed by the tolls of the Bells of Remembrance.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke of the hard times the families of those on Flight 93 have faced, and how they must remember their faces on every birthday and every time they tuck in their kids.
“You have felt it every day, every week and every year that has passed, these 20 years,” she said. “Please know your nation sees with you, and we stand with you.”
Outside the Pentagon early Saturday, family members honored their fallen loved ones. Near the front of the rows of white chairs, Richard Keller and his wife remembered their son, Chandler Keller.
Keller, 29, died on the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 departing Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles.
“We lost him on that day, and we’ve been back almost every year to remember him,” Richard Keller said.
“We just can’t believe it’s been 20 years. We’re tried hard to keep his memory alive.”
Also at the ceremony was Barbara Lee, who was working at the Pentagon that day.
“I think it’s appropriate that we remember, we remember the people that we lost, we remember the families,” Lee said.
“It’s just kind of sad day.”
At the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, a solemn crowd of hundreds gathered as a bell tolled. A moment of silence was held at 8:46 a.m., the moment the north tower of the World Trade Center was hit. People cried as Bruce Springsteen sang: “When all the summers have come to an end / I’ll see you in my dreams / We’ll meet and live and love again / I’ll see you in my dreams.”
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill
Biden visited all three sites. In New York, they were joined by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, along with former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. The three presidents stood side by side, each wearing blue ribbons and holding their hands over their hearts as a procession marched a flag through the memorial.
Lindsay Miller has been coming to the ceremonies in New York as long as she can remember to support her mother, Michele, who lost her brother in the attack.
Miller was 3 years old when her uncle, Mitchel Scott Wallace, a court officer, was killed in the World Trade Center as he tried to rescue trapped victims. As a schoolteacher, she said she now grapples with how students learn about the trauma of the day.
“I don’t know how you first learn about it,” she said. “It’s something you always knew.”
Christine Munson, whose mother, Theresa, died in the south tower on Sept. 11, said she wishes the country could go back to the unity she felt after 9/11.
“We were there for each other, and now we’re so divided,” she said.
Munson has volunteered at the 9/11 Museum in New York, sharing her mother’s story with strangers. That’s part of what’s unique about mourning someone who died on 9/11, she said.
Contributing: Associated Press