NEW YORK (AP) – Americans celebrated the 20th anniversary of 9/11 on Saturday, remembering the dead, invoking heroes and taking stock of the aftermath of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil less than two weeks after the abrupt end of the war in Afghanistan.
New York’s zero-sum ceremony began exactly two decades after the attack with the first of four hijacked planes crashing into one of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.
“It seemed to me that an evil specter had descended into our world, but it was also a time when a lot of people were acting above and beyond the ordinary,” said Mike Low, whose daughter, Sara Low, he was a flight attendant on that plane.
His family has experienced “unbearable sadness and disbelief” in recent years, according to the father to a crowd that included President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
But “as we move these 20 years forward, I find sustenance in continual gratitude for all those who became more than normal people,” Low said.
The anniversary unfolded under the beating of a pandemic and in the shadow of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, now ruled by the same militants who sheltered the 9/11 plots.
“It’s difficult because you had the hope that this would be a different time and a different world. But sometimes history starts to repeat itself and not in the best way, ”said Thea Trinidad, who lost her father in the attacks, before reading the names of the victims at the ceremony.
Bruce Springsteen and Broadway actor Kelli O’Hara sang at the commemoration, but traditionally no politician spoke. In a video released Friday night, Biden addressed the continuing pain of the loss, but also highlighted what he called the “central lesson” of 9/11: “that at our most vulnerable point … unity is our greatest strength “.
Biden also planned to pay tribute to the other two places where the 9/11 conspirators crashed the planes: the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Together, the attacks killed about 3,000 people.
Calvin Wilson arrived at the Pennsylvania memorial to reflect on his brother-in-law LeRoy Homer, the first officer on the plane to crash in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew struggled to regain control. The kidnappers are believed to have gone to the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
Wilson said he believes a polarized country has “lost the message” of the heroism of passengers and crew.
“We are not focusing on the damage. We don’t focus on hatred. We don’t focus on retaliation. We don’t focus on revenge, “Wilson said.” We focus on the good that all our loved ones have done. “
Former President George W. Bush, the nation’s 9/11 leader, and current Vice President Kamala Harris were to speak at the Pennsylvania memorial. The only other post-9/11 U.S. president, Donald Trump, planned to be in New York in addition to commenting at a boxing match in the afternoon in Florida.
Other observations were planned, from the laying of wreaths in Portland, Maine, to a parade of firefighters in Guam, through a country that is now full of plaques, statues and memorial gardens. on September 11th.
After the attacks, security was redefined, with changes to airport checkpoints, police practices and government oversight powers. For years afterward, virtually any considerable explosion, shock, or act of violence seemed to raise a serious question: “Is it terrorism?” Some violence and ideological plots ensued, though federal and public officials lately they have become increasingly concerned about threats from national extremists after years of concentrating on international terrorist groups in the wake of 9/11.
New York faced the first questions about whether he could recover from the blow at his financial center and restore a sense of security among the crowds and skyscrapers. New Yorkers eventually rebuilt a more populous and prosperous city, but they had to count with the tactics of a post-11/11 police department and a larger gap between those who have and those who don’t.
A “war on terror” sparked invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, where the longest war in the United States ended last month with a massive airstrike precipitated and punctuated by a suicide bombing. which killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members and was attributed to a branch of the Islamic State extremist group. Now the United States is worried that al-Qaeda, the terrorist network behind 9/11, could regroup in Afghanistan, where the flag of the Taliban militant group flew over the presidential palace again on Saturday.
Melissa Pullis lost her husband, Edward, on September 11th. His namesake, Edward Jr., serves on the USS Ronald Reagan, where he threw a wreath into the water on Saturday with the words “Never Forget.”
“I don’t really care about the Taliban,” said Melissa Pullis, who attended the ceremony with her other son, Andrew. “I’m glad all the troops have left Afghanistan … We can’t lose any more military. We don’t even know why we’re fighting, and 20 years have passed through the drain.”
Two decades after he helped pick and treat fellow wounded at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, retired Army Colonel Malcolm Bruce Westcott is saddened and frustrated by the continuing threat of terrorism.
“I always felt that my generation, my military cohort, would take care of it; we wouldn’t pass it on to anyone else,” said Westcott of Greensboro, Georgia. “And we transmitted it.”
September 11 drove a wave of shared mourning and common purpose, but it soon gave way.
American Muslims held out suspicion, vigilance and hate crimes. The search to understand the catastrophic toll of terrorist attacks brought about changes in building design and emergency communications, but it also spurred conspiracy theories that sowed a culture of skepticism.. Schisms and resentments grew over immigration, the balance between tolerance and vigilance, the meaning of patriotism, the proper way to honor the dead, and the scope of a promise to “never forget.”
Trinity was ten years old when he overheard his father, Michael, saying goodbye to his mother over the phone from the burning mall. He remembers the pain, but also the fellowship of the following days, when all of New York “felt like a family.”
“Now, when I feel like the world is so divided, I just wish we could go back to it,” said Trinidad, of Orlando, Florida. “I think it would have been such a different world if we could have stayed in that feeling.”
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Associated Press writer Michael Rubinkam in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.