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The United States Marks 22 Years Since 9/11, From Ground Zero To Alaska


Americans are looking back on the horror and legacy of 9/11, gathering Monday at memorials, firehouses, city halls and elsewhere to observe the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.

Commemorations stretch from the attack sites — at New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania — to Alaska and beyond. President Joe Biden is due at a ceremony on a military base in Anchorage.

His visit, en route to Washington, D.C., from a trip to India and Vietnam, is a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every corner of the nation, however remote. The hijacked plane attacks claimed nearly 3,000 lives and reshaped American foreign policy and domestic fears.

On that day, “we were one country, one nation, one people, just like it should be. That was the feeling — that everyone came together and did what we could, where we were at, to try to help,” said Eddie Ferguson, the fire-rescue chief in Virginia’s Goochland County.

It’s more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Pentagon and more than three times as far from New York. But a sense of connection is enshrined in a local memorial incorporating steel from the World Trade Center’s destroyed twin towers.

The predominantly rural county of 25,000 people holds not just one but two anniversary commemorations: a morning service focused on first responders and an evening ceremony honoring all the victims.

Other communities across the country pay tribute with moments of silence, tolling bells, candlelight vigils and other activities. In Columbus, Indiana, 911 dispatchers broadcast a remembrance message to police, fire and EMS radios throughout the 50,000-person city, which also holds a public memorial ceremony.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts raise and lower the flag at a commemoration in Fenton, Missouri, where a “Heroes Memorial” includes a piece of World Trade Center steel and a plaque honoring 9/11 victim Jessica Leigh Sachs. Some of her relatives live in the St. Louis suburb of 4,000 residents.

“We’re just a little bitty community,” said Mayor Joe Maurath, but “it’s important for us to continue to remember these events. Not just 9/11, but all of the events that make us free.”

New Jersey’s Monmouth County, which was home to some 9/11 victims, made Sept. 11 a holiday this year for county employees so they could attend commemorations.

As another way of marking the anniversary, many Americans do volunteer work on what Congress has designated both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

At ground zero, Vice President Kamala Harris is due to join the ceremony on the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum plaza. The event will not feature remarks from political figures, instead giving the podium to victims’ relatives for an hourslong reading of the names of the dead.

James Giaccone signed up to read again this year in memory of his brother, Joseph Giaccone, 43. The family attends the ceremony every year to hear Joseph’s name.

“If their name is spoken out loud, they don’t disappear,” James Giaccone said in a recent interview.

The commemoration is crucial to him.

“I hope I never see the day when they minimize this,” he said. “It’s a day that changed history.”

Biden, a Democrat, will be the first president to commemorate Sept. 11 in Alaska, or anywhere in the western U.S. He and his predecessors have gone to one or another of the attack sites in most years, though Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama each marked the anniversary on the White House lawn at times. Obama followed one of those observances by recognizing the military with a visit to Fort Meade in Maryland.

First lady Jill Biden is due to lay a wreath at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.

In Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked jets crashed after passengers tried to storm the cockpit, a remembrance and wreath-laying is scheduled at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown operated by the National Park Service. Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is expected to attend the ceremony.

The memorial site will offer a new educational video, virtual tour and other materials for teachers to use in classrooms. Educators with a total of more than 10,000 students have registered for access to the free “National Day of Learning” program, which will be available through the fall, organizers say.

“We need to get the word out to the next generation,” said memorial spokesperson Katherine Hostetler, a National Park Service ranger.

(AP)



4 Responses

  1. It is not enough to remember the names of the 3,000+ victims who died when the World Trade Center was destroyed by Arab-Muslim terrorists on 2001 September 11.

    We must remember the names of the 19 terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center and the lives of 3,000+ innocent people:

    [1] Mohamed Atta [2] Satam al-Suqami
    [3] Waleed al-Shehri [4] Wail al-Shehri
    [5] Abdulaziz al-Omari [6] Marwan al-Shehhi
    [7] Fayez Banihammad [8] Mohand al-Shehri
    [9] Hamza al-Ghamdi [10] Ahmed al-Ghamdi
    [11] Hani Hanjour [12] Khalid al-Mihdhar
    [13] Majed Moqed [14] Nawaf al-Hazmi
    [15] Salem al-Hazmi [16] Ziad Jarrah
    [17] Ahmed al-Nami [18] Saeed al-Ghamdi
    [19] Ahmed al-Haznawi.

    Even more important, we must remember which religion they believed in [Islam] and, which religion motivated their violence [Islam] and, which language they spoke [Arabic], and where they came from [Egypt and Saudi Arabia].

    If you think that remembering this is not important, then please consider that the Muslim-loving Mainstream-News-Media (MSM) tries very hard to never mention this information.

    If you think that remembering this is not important, then please consider that many millions of people are saying — falsely — that the World Trade Center was destroyed by Jews.

  2. SQUARE_ROOT,

    When you blame a whole religion, country and language for the acts of terrorists, then do not be surprised when the anti-semites blame you, your religion , your country and your language for the acts of a few Jews.

  3. The Koran (chapter 5, verse 82) teaches that Jews [and polytheists] are
    “THE WORST ENEMIES OF MUSLIMS”.

    Not just enemies of Muslims, but THE WORST enemies of Muslims.

    This Koran verse does not make any distinction between kosher Jews and traif Jews – nor does it make any distinction between pro-Zionist Jews and anti-Zionist Jews.

    =========================
    Ancient Islamic writings teach [many times] that The Last Day cannot come until ALL [100%] of Jews are DEAD – with no distinction between kosher Jews and traif Jews, and no distinction between pro-Zionist Jews and anti-Zionist Jews. As shown below:

    Translation of Sahih Bukhari, Book 56: Narrated by Abu Huraira:

    Allah’s Messenger [Mohammed] said,

    “The [Final] Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews,
    and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will [miraculously] say:

    “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him!”

    SOURCE: Sahih al-Bukhari 2924, Book 56, Hadith 137, Volume 4, Book 52, Hadith 175

    NOTE: Hadith are sacred Islamic stories about Mohammed.
    NOTE: This story appears in the Hadith seven (7) times!

    =========================
    Mohammed’s last words before he died:

    “O Lord, kill the Jews and Christians!”

    SOURCE: Hadith Malik, 511:1588

    VOCABULARY NOTE: Hadith is a major Islamic holy book, like the Koran.

    EXPLANATION: Islam teaches that Mohammed’s later teachings take priority over his older teachings. Therefore, the later the teaching, the greater it is. Therefore, Muslims must believe that Mohammed’s last words were his most important words.

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