By: Jerry Schwartz
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - America paused Wednesday to
remember the unforgettable - with the tolling of bells,
with recitations of the names of the dead, and above
all, with silence. "Today, we remember each life,"
said President Bush. In New York and in Washington,
at a field in southwestern Pennsylvania - and in myriad
places around the world - the end of a convulsive year
that began on Sept. 11, 2001, was marked with solemnity.
The stillness started in New York, with a moment of silence
at ground zero, the massive hole where the
World Trade Center once stood, until terrorist-guided jetliners
cut through a crystal blue sky a year ago and obliterated its
towers. The 2,801 names on the city's list of the dead were
read, one by one. On a gusty day, their loved ones cried and
dropped roses in a "circle of honor."
"They were our neighbors, our husbands, our children, our
sisters, our brothers and our wives. They were our countrymen
and our friends. They were us," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Gov. George Pataki followed the moment of silence with a
reading of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
And then Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor who guided the
city with quiet strength in the days after last Sept. 11, began
the reading of the names.
"Gordon M. Aamoth Jr.," he intoned. "Edelmiro Abad.
Maria Rose Abad. Andrew Anthony Abate ..."
The time was 8:46 a.m. EDT, the instant when American
Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the
gargantuan complex.
To the mournful tones of a string quartet, family members
of the dead - and notables such as New York Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State Colin Powell and actor
Robert De Niro - picked up the list where Giuliani left off.
At 9:03 a.m., the moment the second tower was struck, the
ringing of a bell interrupted the recitation of names.
The city's church bells tolled to mark the moment when the
second tower fell. The reading of the names ended at
11:20 a.m.; a bugler played taps.
The chain of remembrance extended from New York to
Washington, where a moment of silence marked the time
when American Airlines Flight 77 smashed into the Pentagon,
killing 184. Bush helped unfurl a giant flag, and he pledged to
press the fight against the terrorists who unleashed these horrors.
"One year ago, men and women and children were killed here
because they were Americans and because this place is a
symbol to the world of our country's might and resolve," he said.
And the mourning extended to southwestern Pennsylvania,
where thousands gathered in a field to remember the 40
passengers and crew who perished in the crash of United
Flight 93 - heroes, authorities believe, who fought their attackers.
Again there was silence, and a bell tolled as each victim's
name was read.
Bush flew to Pennsylvania at midday, his first visit to the site
of the crash. He placed a wreath and he prayed and chatted
with the families of the dead.
Later in the day, Bush was to lay a wreath at ground zero, as
well, and speak to the nation from Ellis Island.
A cascade of memorial events marked a moment whose
echoes still resound from New York to Afghanistan, and
everywhere in between - a moment that even a year later
left many transfixed by the horror, burdened by sadness,
plagued by fears.
It was a day of jitters and heightened security. Officials
issued a "code orange" - the second-highest level of alert
and warned that terrorists might strike again.
The moment of the first attack was commemorated around
the globe, starting in New Zealand, with the first line of the
Requiem that Mozart wrote in his dying days.
"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis,"
sang the Orlando Singers Chamber Choir at St. Luke's Presbyterian
Church in Rumuera: "Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may
perpetual light shine on them."
Choirs in 20 time zones around the world were to sing those words,
each of them beginning at 8:46 a.m., local time.
In Australia, 3,000 people in red-white-and-blue clothes
assembled on a beach to make a human flag. In Paris,
two powerful beams of light were projected into the sky.
A special Mass for firefighters was held at a Rome basilica,
and Pope John Paul II dedicated his weekly audience to the
attacks. "No situation of hurt, no philosophy or religion can
ever justify such a grave offense on human life and dignity,"
he said.
While the focus in America was on the places that suffered
the most, ceremonies marking Sept. 11 - prayer, the tolling
of bells, candlelight vigils, releases of doves and balloons,
riderless horses, flags at half-staff - were everywhere.
On the sprawling statehouse lawn in Columbus, Ohio, 2,999
American flags and one Ohio flag were arranged to depict the
twin towers. In San Francisco's Washington Square, more than
3,000 flags flew, including those of 14 other countries whose
citizens were among the victims.
At Boston's Logan International Airport, where the two planes
that struck the trade center took off, all ground operations
stopped at 8:46 a.m.
At the Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno, Nev., dealers held their
cards and security guards stood silent, their hands folded.
Cocktail servers paused, drinks on their trays.
At Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame,
"The Star-Spangled Banner" was played on a steel guitar
and Connie Smith sang "Amazing Grace" after a moment
of silence and a color guard presentation by police officers
and firefighters.
In Phoenix, 100 people joined hands before sunrise and
stood near a downtown intersection, facing east. They
listened on a cell phone to New Yorkers singing
"God Bless America."
In Montgomery, Ala., at E.D. Nixon Elementary School,
sixth-graders and their teachers baked cookies to bring
to their local firefighters. It was their idea, said principal
Terese Goodson: "They just wanted to do something."
And yes, Goodson replied to their pleading, they could add
a touch of red to their white-blue-and-khaki uniforms on Sept. 11.
Fifteen percent of American businesses planned to give their
employees red-white-and-blue ribbons or pins for the day,
according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource
Management; about a third said they would observe a moment
of silence on Wednesday. Just 4 percent said they would give
their workers the day off with pay.
The stock exchanges delayed their openings the New York
Stock Exchange, which closed for the rest of the week after
the attacks last year, rang its opening bell shortly after noon.
Telemarketers hung up their phones. Said Perry Young, head of
a calling center in Omaha: "If I received a call at home on that
day from somebody trying to sell me something, I would be
personally offended." As they did a year ago, television networks
struck everything else from their schedules.
Some airlines - still struggling to regain passenger traffic they
lost a year ago - scaled back their schedules, as travelers
avoided the skies on this day.
For the loved ones of those who died on this day, Sept. 11 was
almost more than they could bear. In New York, 17-year-old
Marianne Keane took a moment during the recitation of names to
say a few words about her stepfather, Franco Lalama, an engineer
for New York's Port Authority who died at the trade center.
"I would give anything to go back to the morning of Sept. 11
and tell him how much I appreciated everything he's done for me,"
she said. "But I think he knows that now. In my eyes he died a
hero. And how much more could you ask for?"
But other survivors kept their distance. Barbara Minervino of
Middletown, N.J., planned to attend a private Mass along with
others from that town, which lost dozens of its people at the
World Trade Center. Louis Minervino was at his 98th-floor office
in Tower One when the first jet hit.
But she had no intention of going to lower Manhattan on
Wednesday. She would do the laundry, go to the beach
with her two daughters, make dinner - her husband's favorite,
lasagna. She wanted to honor his life, not his death.
"We are in our new normalcy," she said. "It's not the normalcy
we had before. We're without our loved ones. It certainly will
never be the normalcy we had on Sept. 10.
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