As the tenth anniversary approaches of the day the World Trade Towers fell on September 11, 2001, I want to dedicate this week’s blogpost to the many lives that were shattered.
Never forget:
· those who died
· those who survived
· those who were injured
· those who suffer today
· those who lived and worked in Manhattan that day and the days after
· all New Yorkers from all the 5 boroughs
· those at the Pentagon & the people in Washington DC
· those on Flight 93 In PA and those near the crash site
· all Americans
· so many throughout the world who cared so much
We experienced a common grief, with all the accompanying emotions of denial, guilt of surviving, and justifiable anger magnified by the immensity of the loss. Yet we also pulled together in a support system that helped us all survive.
It is ten years later. As Americans, have we completed the stages of grief? Do we remember how to work together to support each other? Or has hatred & fear consumed our lives, continuing the devastation again and again in our lives, allowing the terrorists to have won?
As a reporter for the Staten Island Register, I covered the ceremony marking the end of the recovery effort at the World Trade Center. What I experienced that day will stay with me forever. I hope reading it now may offer some comfort & peace to you.
Remembering the fragilityof every human life By Angie Mangino
Published in the Staten Island Register June 4, 2002
On May30 – the traditional Memorial Day before our holiday celebrations were moved to be part of a long weekend – New York City marked the end of the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site with a ceremony that began at 10:29 a.m., marking the fall of the last piece of steel after the collapse of the second tower at 10:28 a.m. on September 11.
Standingon the press ramp overlooking the site, I found that, when it began with Firefighter James Sarokac ringing the FDNY bell in 5-5-5-5 code, the traditional signal for a fallen firefighter, I didn’t need to jockey with the rest of the press to get the best vantage point. Just being present at the site wrote the story in my heart.
The procession centered on a stretcher with an American flag folded on top, symbolizing all those not recovered who perished on September 11. It was placed in a waiting ambulance; followed by a truck that was draped in black cloth that carried the last load of steel (better known as the “Stars and Stripes beam”) covered with an American flag.
Firefighter Julian Ponteveccio and Police Officer Edward Harrigan played Taps, followed by a NYPD helicopter flyover. After the Pipe and Drum Unit played “America the Beautiful,” the procession continued north along West Street to Canal Street.
A combined FDNY/NYPD/PAPD Ceremonial Unit formed a line across the top of the ramp, officially marking the end of the recovery effort at the World TradeCenter site; although the recovery process continues at the Fresh Kills Landfill with remains identification still going on at the office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
When the ceremony was over, the ring of cell phones and buzz of conversations of many of the crowd started, a concrete sign of moving on. Yet, as the rest of the press left, I found myself cemented to the spot, quietly looking out at the place that claimed so many lives, getting the feeling that I was looking at a new form of cemetery. I told myself it was time to leave, but my heart and soul kept me rooted to the spot.
That’s when I noticed the man with the hard hat standing alone; and some firefighters and police personnel who had replaced the members of the press who had left. Not one of us spoke, but there was an unspoken mutual acknowledgment that leaving was difficult.
Grieving, being an individual process, has its own timetable. As I looked out I saw not just the pain of September 11, but the pain of every day since then and of the days to come.
Yet when I looked from the dusty concrete walls that looked aged, sad and war-torn on a floor of wet dirt with mud traces throughout to notice three white birds flying across the pit, I became aware of the frame of existing skyscrapers around the site that reached up to a sunny blue sky. It was then that I fully sensed the spiritual presence at the site, so many touching me and calling me to remember, but also so gently releasing me to go on.
The inner peace of the human spirit is there to encourage, no matter what happens in the physical world, as all these people, now at peace, live on in our hearts always to be remembered. If we are to learn anything from September 11, we must never forget the fragility and preciousness of each and every life.
