One month on, America remembers terrorist atrocities
Through unstinting smoke and countless tears, weary clean-up workers paused for a moment at ground zero to mark a grim milestone the passing of one month since New York’s World Trade Centre towers ceased to exist, along with the thousands of people trapped inside.
It was a day for remembering. In Washington, President George Bush joined crowds at the Pentagon to remember the 189 people who died there that same September day. There also were ceremonies in places far from the devastation, but still reeling from the acts.
‘‘On September 11, great sorrow came to our country, and from that sorrow has come great resolve,’’ the US President said at the nerve centre of the nation’s military.
A ‘‘cult of evil’’ attacked the Pentagon, the World Trade Centre and United Flight 93 over Pennsylvania, Bush said, and ‘‘there is no shelter’’ for those responsible. ‘‘We have the patience to fight and win on many fronts,’’ he said.
After taps was played and after choruses of America the Beautiful, the names of the victims were scrolled on television screens.
‘‘Their deaths, like their lives, shall have meaning,’’ said defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
‘‘We remember their deeds,’’ said General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ‘‘We call them heroes not because they died, but because they lived in service to the greater good.’’
A single red rose was placed on the seat of each relative of each victim. Members of the cabinet and Congress sat solemnly.
In New York, workers took off their helmets and joined arm in arm. ‘‘Don’t look at the terrorism over there, look at the heroism over here,’’ said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, a Fire Department chaplain.
Fire Department bagpipers played Amazing Grace, their pipes decorated with small American flags. They led police officers, firefighters and construction workers to the service, which included a moment of silence at 8.48am, the time of the first attack on September 11.
At the New York Stock Exchange, representatives of New York’s uniformed services rang the opening bell, and received a lengthy ovation.
At London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, firefighters from all over Britain attended a service for the New York firefighters.
At the trade centre, as bright sunlight pierced the smoke that has persisted for a month, prayers were offered first for the 343 firefighters and 23 police officers who were killed, and then for all the dead. So far, the total number of missing and dead stood at 5,160 including 4,776 missing and 384 victims identified.
A total of 442 bodies have been recovered.
‘‘The fire is still burning, but from it has emerged a stronger spirit,’’ Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said, as he stood with the city’s fire and police commissioners on a stage in front of the blackened Dow Jones building.
‘‘Sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like a year ago or more,’’ he said. The terrorists, he said, ‘‘attempted to break our spirit instead they have emboldened it.’’
It was a brief service, just 15 minutes long; the idling engines of the heavy construction machinery could be heard in the background. Prayers were offered. At the end, the pipes played ‘‘America the Beautiful.’’
