Page 2 - aruba-today-20200911

A2 UP FRONT
Friday 11 September 2020
In a year of social distancing, virus alters Sept. 11, too

Continued from Front ize the display on its own,
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and
"Who expected COVID-19? former Mayor Mike Bloomb-
... It was completely unfore- erg, the memorial's billion-
seen. As was 9/11," she said. aire chairman, stepped
This year's plans have been in to keep the memorial-
a balancing act at the sites sponsored lights on. (Tunnel
where hijacked planes pi- to Towers is now stationing
loted by al-Qaida terrorists lights at the Flight 93 me-
crashed on Sept. 11, 2001: morial and the Pentagon.)
New York, the Pentagon Memorial President Alice
and a field near Shanksville, Greenwald later said the
Pennsylvania. organization "should have
The Flight 93 memorial near approached this issue dif-
Shanksville is trimming its ferently." Still, the memo-
usual 90-minute ceremony, rial's moves fanned mistrust
partly by eliminating musi- among some 9/11 victims'
cal interludes. Memorial relatives who wonder how
spokeswoman Katherine long the name-reading
Cordek said the names of and other observances
the 40 people killed there will continue. Katismati-
would be read, but by one des, the board member,
person instead of multiple In this Sept. 11, 2018, file photo, New York City firefighters salute in front of a memorial on the side foresees the ceremony
family members. of a firehouse adjacent to One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial site during ceremonies returning to normal next
Military leaders will con- on the anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York. year. Debra Epps has
duct the Pentagon's cer- Associated Press been to the ground zero
emony without victims' families' attachment to be- attend both observances anew when the memo- ceremony every year. She
families in attendance, and ing at ground zero on the to honor the brother he lost, rial announced last month said it means a lot to her
their loved ones' names will anniversary. But another firefighter Stephen. it was nixing the Tribute in to read names and add a
be recited by a recording, 9/11-related organization, Meanwhile, Fire Commis- Light, twin blue beams that few words in tribute to her
rather than readers on-site. the Stephen Stiller Tun- sioner Daniel Nigro told shine into the night sky over brother Christopher, an ac-
Victims' relatives can visit nel to Towers Foundation, current firefighters in a lower Manhattan. While countant. Still, she thinks the
the Pentagon's memorial in quickly arranged its own memo last month that the there's no official gathering memorial was right to forgo
small groups later Friday. simultaneous ceremony a department "strongly rec- to view the lights, the me- the live name-reading this
In New York — where the few blocks away, saying ommends" members not morial cited virus risks to the year. The virus has her con-
nation's deadliest coro- victims' relatives could re- participate in 9/11 observ- installation crew. The can- cerned enough that she's
navirus spike happened cite names while keeping a ances. The department did cellation outraged some not planning to attend.
early this spring but has safe distance. hold a limited-attendance victims' relatives, police "It really is a hard decision
since been fairly well con- "We need to keep letting ceremony Wednesday to and fire unions and politi- to make, but I know that
tained — leaders of the America know what hap- add names to a memorial cians, who noted that con- we're still in this pandemic,"
National Sept. 11 Memo- pened 19 years ago. And wall recognizing members struction sites around the said Epps, who works in
rial & Museum said their they need to see that emo- who died after exposure city were deemed safe to health care.
plan for a no-reading cer- tion of the day, not a re- to toxins unleashed in the reopen months ago. After "I will remember my broth-
emony would honor both cording," says chairman wreckage. Tensions over the Tunnel to Towers foun- er, no matter what," she
virus precautions and 9/11 Frank Siller. He says he may anniversary plans flared dation said it would organ- said.q

Judges: Trump can’t exclude people from district drawings

order issued in late July was of numbers be presented brought by a coalition of
unlawful and the harm it — one with the total count states led by New York and
would cause would last a and the other dealing with several civil rights groups.
decade. The judges pro- people living in the country Because the lawsuits dealt
hibited Commerce Sec- illegally. with questions about ap-
retary Wilbur Ross, whose "Throughout the Nation's portionment, it was heard
agency oversees the U.S. history, the figures used to by a three-judge panel
Census Bureau, from ex- determine the apportion- that allows the decision to
cluding people in the coun- ment of Congress — in the be appealed directly to
try illegally when handing in language of the current the U.S. Supreme Court.
2020 census figures used to statutes, the 'total popula- "This is a huge victory for
calculate how many con- tion' and the 'whole num- voting rights and for im-
gressional seats each state ber of persons' in each migrants' rights," said Dale
This Sunday, April 5, 2020, photo shows an envelope containing gets. State — have included ev- Ho, director of the ACLU's
a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident in Detroit. According to the judges, ery person residing in the Voting Rights Project, one
Associated Press
the presidential order vio- United States at the time of of the group's that chal-
By MIKE SCHNEIDER people in the country ille- lated laws governing the the census, whether citizen lenged the order. "President
Associated Press gally from the process of execution of the once-a- or non-citizen and whether Trump has tried and failed
NEW YORK (AP) — A panel redrawing congressional decade census and also living here with legal sta- yet again to weaponize
of three federal judges on districts. the process for redraw- tus or without," the judges the census against immi-
Thursday blocked an or- The federal judges in New ing congressional districts wrote. grant communities. The
der from President Donald York, in granting an injunc- known as apportionment The lawsuits challenging law is clear — every person
Trump that tried to exclude tion, said the presidential by requiring that two sets the presidential order were counts in the census."q