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Dialuna 12 September 2022
9/11 terror attacks reverberate as US marks 21st anniversary
(AP) — Americans re- military, appeals to patrio-
membered 9/11 on Sunday tism, hopes for peace, occa-
with tear-choked tributes sional political barbs, and a
and pleas to "never forget," poignant accounting of the
21 years after the deadliest graduations, weddings, births
terror attack on U.S. soil. and daily lives that victims
have missed. A few readers
The loss still felt immediate note recent events, this year
to Bonita Mentis, who wore ranging from the still ongo-
a necklace with a photo of her ing coronavirus pandemic to
slain sister, Shevonne Mentis. Russia's war in Ukraine.
"It's been 21 years, but it's not
21 years for us. It seems like Some relatives also lament
just yesterday," she said be- that a nation which came
fore reading victims' names together — to some extent
at the World Trade Center to — after the attacks has since
a crowd that included Vice splintered apart. Federal law
President Kamala Harris and enforcement and intelli-
husband Doug Emhoff. gence agencies, which were
reshaped to focus on inter-
At the Pentagon, which also national terrorism after 9/11,
was targeted on 9/11, Presi- now see the threat of do-
dent Joe Biden vowed that mestic violent extremism as
the U.S. would continue equally urgent.
working to root out terrorist "It took a tragedy to unite
plots and called on Ameri- co-defendants this week con- national pride and unity for American politics and public us. It should not take an-
cans to stand up for "the firmed ongoing negotiations many, while also subjecting life to this day. other tragedy to unite us
very democracy that guar- toward a potential agreement Muslim Americans to years But like some other victims' again," said Andrew Cola-
antees the right to freedom to avoid a trial and impose of suspicion and bigotry and relatives, Jay Saloman fears bella, whose cousin, John
that those terrorists on 9/11 lesser but still lengthy sen- engendering debate over the that Americans' conscious- DiGiovanni, died in the 1993
sought to bury in the burn- tences. balance between safety and ness of 9/11 is receding. bombing World Trade Center
ing fire, smoke and ash." First civil liberties. In ways both "It was a terrorist attack bombing that presaged 9/11.
lady Jill Biden spoke at the The Sept. 11 attacks stirred subtle and plain, the after- against our country that day. Communities around the
third attack site, a field near — for a time — a sense of math of 9/11 ripples through And theoretically, everybody country marked the day with
Shanksville, Pennsylvania. should remember it and, you candlelight vigils, interfaith
know, take precautions and services and other commem-
On Sept. 11, 2001, conspira- watch out," said Saloman, orations, and some Ameri-
tors from the al-Qaida Mus- who lost his brother, Wayne cans joined in volunteer
lim militant group seized Saloman. projects. Others observed the
control of jets to use them as anniversary with their own
passenger-filled missiles, hit- By tradition, no political fig- reflections.
ting the trade center's twin ures speak at the ground zero
towers and the Pentagon. ceremony. The observance More than 70 of Sekou Si-
The fourth plane was headed centers, instead, on relatives by's co-workers perished at
for Washington but crashed reading aloud the names of Windows on the World, the
near Shanksville after crew the dead. restaurant atop the trade cen-
members and passengers ter's north tower. He had the
tried to storm the cockpit. Like a growing number of day off because another cook
readers, firefighter Jimmy asked him to switch shifts.
The attacks killed nearly Riches' namesake nephew
3,000 people, reconfigured wasn't born yet when his rel- "Every 9/11 is a reminder of
national security policy and ative died. But the boy took what I lost that I can nev-
spurred a U.S. "war on ter- the podium to honor him. er recover," says Siby, now
ror" worldwide. Sunday's "You're always in my heart. president of ROC United, a
observances came little more And I know you are watching restaurant workers' advocacy
than a month after a U.S. over me," he said. group. He said ahead of the
drone strike killed a key al- anniversary that the attacks
Qaida figure who helped plot Nikita Shah wore a T-shirt made him wary of becoming
9/11, Ayman al-Zawahri. that bore the de facto epi- attached to people when "you
graph of the annual com- have no control over what's
Pierre Roldan, who lost his memoration — "never for- going to happen to them
cousin Carlos Lillo, a para- get" — and the name of her next."
medic, said "we had some father, Jayesh Shah. She was Ginny Barnett volunteered
form of justice" when a U.S. 10 when he was killed. at the Shanksville site after
raid killed Osama bin Laden The family later moved to the attacks and struggled for
in 2011. Houston but often returns to years to come to terms with
New York for the anniversary the tragedy. She gradually
"Now that al-Zawahri is to be "around people who found hope by volunteering
gone, at least we're con- kind of experienced the same for the memorial there now.
tinuing to get that justice," type of grief and the same
Roldan said. feelings after 9/11," said Shah. "I have seen firsthand the evil
that man can do, but I have
The self-proclaimed mas- Readers often add personal also seen the good that man
termind of the attacks, Kha- remarks that form an al- can do," Barnett said Sunday.
lid Shaikh Mohammed, still loy of American sentiments "With God's help, we can fo-
awaits a long-postponed about Sept. 11 — grief, an- cus on and foster good, rather
military tribunal. An attor- ger, toughness, appreciation than let hate and anger con-
ney for one of Mohammed's for first responders and the sume us."
