America Mourns With Flags, Candles
A country in mourning poured its grief into prayer and defiant chants, showing unity in the flicker of thousands of candles at vigils across America.
As dusk fell yesterday on a day of remembrance, strangers congregated a few miles from the devastation in New York and they gathered as far away as Alaska to show solidarity. On the Las Vegas Strip, the lights went down.
About 500 people joined together in the rain Friday night at Denver's Washington Park, holding candles and softly singing "Amazing Grace" and "America the Beautiful."
"I brought my 6-year-old here tonight because it's important that she knows there are more good people in the world than bad," said Terra Avila, 29, of Denver.
About 75 people lighted candles in a park on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill as the sun set behind the Olympic Mountains. The crowd had a clear view of the Space Needle, topped by an American flag at half-staff.
Anne Gauthier, 28, an executive assistant at Microsoft Corp., said she came out "to say yes, you have hurt us more deeply than you ever did before but you're not going to break us."
In Las Vegas, blackjack dealers stopped dealing cards and roulette wheels went still at some casinos. Many casinos on the Strip turned off their exterior lights.
About 2,500 candles lined a marble balcony and the steps of the Rhode Island Statehouse, illuminating the lawn of the historic building where thousands gathered for a nighttime service.
Ed and Tracy Berry and their two young children lighted five candles on their quiet street in north Dallas, responding to e-mails sent by their church and a friend.
"We told our 5-year-old that a terrible accident had happened and lots of people are hurt," Ed Berry said.
On Manhattan's Upper West Side, hundreds met at a Mexican restaurant that handed out candles and flags. People cheered and sang "God Bless America" as military jets flew overhead.
"I've been in the house for the last three days in shock. This is my first day out," said Millie Cintron, a Wall Street worker who saw the World Trade Center towers collapse.
A widespread Internet message had urged people to light candles Friday to "show the world that Americans are strong and united together against terrorism."
President Bush had called for the day of remembrance to memorialize the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Before the candlelight vigils Friday, there were prayers.
The mighty gathered in Washington. Bush attended a service at the National Cathedral with a who's who of American politics, including four former presidents.
At the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the site of the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building, several hundred people sang under an American elm that survived that blast.
Outside Los Angeles' city hall, Arlene Mills, 40, and her husband wore red, white and blue bandanas and carried a sign that read "God Bless America. R.I.P. Victims of Terrorists."
Tears flowed from behind Mills' dark sunglasses.
"You realize that being a Democrat, Republican, New Yorker or from Los Angeles doesn't matter," she said. "Today from this day on, everybody is just an American."
Sayeed Siddiqui, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, addressed his comments at a memorial service to "fellow Americans." Muslims have been targets of revenge assaults since the attacks.
"God help us fight hate and change it with our hearts filled with compassion," Siddiqui said.
At Oracle Corp., the Silicon Valley software giant, 5,000 employees held hands around an ornamental lake outside their offices and sang "America the Beautiful."
On the Mexican border, U.S. customs and immigration agents stopped traffic going into the United States for one minute.
At the National Cathedral, an Episcopal bishop urged people to use the church as a "container for your grief." But around the country, many Americans were more consumed by anger than sorrow.
"I'm supposed to be a Christian, but my prayers are for revenge," said Al Thompson, who attended a Mass at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. "What's the saying? God may forgive them but I never will."
