USA Remembers 9/11

From the tolling of bells near Shanksville, Pa., to a moment of silence on the White House lawn and a procession of families to the depths of Ground Zero, the nation paused Tuesday to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed six years ago when suicidal terrorists struck America.
On a windy, rainy morning so unlike that warm, cloudless day in 2001, the observance in New York City was more muted if no less poignant than past years. Thousands of family members gathered for the first time at a nearby park instead of on the site where the World Trade Center stood and fell.
PHOTO GALLERY: America remembers 9/11 six years later
Construction of a memorial and skyscrapers is underway at Ground Zero, so the city initially was not going to allow anyone inside. But family members ultimately were permitted to descend briefly to lay flowers and write messages.
Christine Reilly of Huntington, N.Y., attended the ceremony for the first time in five years. Because of the construction, it probably was the last time she would be able to stand on the foundation of the building where her 25-year-old brother James Reilly died on the 89th floor of the south tower.

Being down there, she said, "is always hard, always sad, but also somehow comforting."
Relatives made a pilgrimage to the temporary memorial near the Pennsylvania field where United Flight 93 crashed after passengers stormed the cockpit to wrest control of the jet hijackers had commandeered and turned back toward Washington.
At the site, bedecked with 40 metallic red, white and blue angels in honor of the passengers and crewmembers lost, Kay Roy remembered her sister, Colleen Fraser of Elizabeth, N.J. "I'm glad that one of my family members happens to be one of these heroes," she said.
In Washington, President and Laura Bush attended a prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church near the White House and later joined Vice President Cheney and his wife, Lynne, on the South Lawn for a moment of silence.
At the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the wall where the jet struck. "We cannot touch our loved ones today," he said, his voice quavering. "Therefore, we ask God to hug them for us. … We will serve this nation in their honor."
Ground Zero was a backdrop this year, but other elements of the New York ceremony stayed the same, so hauntingly familiar that they have taken on the aura of ritual. There were the four moments of silence marking the times when the jets struck the twin towers and when each fell. There were spoken remembrances by family members. Again, there was the reading of the names of the dead.
That list grew by one this year, to 2,750, with the inclusion for the first time of a person who did not die at the World Trade Center. Felicia Dunn-Jones died five months later of lung disease, one of many whose families say their loved ones became ill after breathing the dust from Ground Zero.
In past years, the names were read by spouses, children and siblings. Tuesday, that duty went to rescue workers.
Former mayor Rudy Giuliani also spoke, his brief remarks garnering tepid applause. He said 9/11 "was a day with no answers, but with an unending line of people who came forward to help one another." Though he has participated in every other anniversary observance, this year's appearance was controversial because he is running for president and making his 9/11 leadership a focal point of his campaign.
Some relatives of those who died, particularly 343 firefighters, blame Giuliani for placing the city's emergency operations center near the World Trade Center, which meant that it was of no use that day. Some are also angry radio communications among rescuers were defective.
"Being that we're a firefighter family, I think he (Giuliani) failed us. … I don't think he's a hero in any way," said Marisol Torres, 41, of Dutchess County, N.Y. Her firefighter cousin, Manuel Del Valle Jr., 32, died on 9/11.
This anniversary, the first to fall on the same day of the week as the attacks themselves, was particularly difficult for her, Torres said. "Wherever I am on this day, whether New York City holds these observances or not," she said, "it's always going to be a day of reflection."
Others say the large, public events no longer are necessary.
"It's time that the world heals," said Nick Chiarchiaro, 64, whose wife, Dorothy, 62, and niece, Dolores Costa, 50, died on the 93rd floor of the north tower.
He and six others who lost a loved one that day in 2001 call themselves the "September Seven," having forged a friendship from sorrow. Every year they come together to the anniversary ceremony. Last year, Chiarchiaro stood on the stage and read his wife's name. This year's observance is probably his last.
"I don't think we're going to be coming back," said Chiarchiaro, who lives in Vernon, N.J. "To reopen the wound year after year after year … it's too heart wrenching."
Contributing: Rick Hampson in New York, David Jackson in Washington, the Associated Press