It’s been 11 years since 9/11 – since the towers fell, the Pentagon was hit, and brave passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 averted an even greater catastrophe.
In all those places today, those touched by that terrible morning pause to remember, to commemorate.
- From Ground Zero in New York City comes word that the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, originally scheduled to open today, is back on track. Stalled by a funding feud, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says a new agreement “ensures that [construction] will be restarted very soon and will not stop until the museum is completed.” Meanwhile, people gathered at 8:30 a.m. EST at the memorial to grieve, to hope and to remember.
- More muted is the commemoration in Washington, D.C. at The Pentagon Memorial. Public access to the memorial is limited this Tuesday morning because of a private ceremony involving survivors, and surviving family members. The Pentagon Memorial will be closed until noon today. Otherwise, it’s open Monday through Sunday, 24 hours per day, and there are no organized tours of the site. The Pentagon says simply, “The Memorial is meant to be experienced on a more personal level.”
- Then there is the field in Shanksville, Pa., the one that absorbed the impact of United 93 so that our nation’s capitol wouldn’t. At the Flight 93 National Memorial there will be interpretative programs led by Park Rangers and volunteers from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. At noon, seeds will be planted, signifying new birth, new hopes. At 1 p.m. there’s the introduction of the story of Flight 93. Finally, 4 p.m. begins a chronicling of Flight 93’s Final Minutes: The Flight Data Recorder Story.
It may be too late to make any of these events today, but wherever we are we can take time to pause – to remember that Tuesday morning 11 years ago.
(Image: Bob Jagendorf)
