Victims' families huddled under umbrellas in a park to mark the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the first remembrance ceremony not held at Ground Zero, an event that failed to evoke the same emotions as the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center site.
"I guess they mean well, but I really wasn't happy," said Sal Romagnolo, whose son, Joseph Romagnolo, worked in the trade center's north tower. "I never got my son back. That's the only place we have."
"I get nothing out of this park," Romagnolo said.
Around the country, Americans went through familiar mourning rituals on Tuesday as they looked back on the day when terrorists hijacked four jetliners and killed nearly 3,000 people.
US President George W. Bush attended ceremonies at the White House and the Pentagon, and the 40 passengers and crew members who died when a flight crashed into a Pennsylvania field were honored as "citizen soldiers" by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Presidential politics, the health of Ground Zero workers, and the continuing security threat loomed over the day's ceremonies. Hours before, a video from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was released, calling for sympathizers to join a "caravan" of martyrs. It served as a stark reminder that the US has failed to catch the man believed to be behind the attacks.
The Manhattan ceremonies were held largely in a public park because of rebuilding at Ground Zero. First responders, volunteers and firefighters who helped rescue New Yorkers from the collapsing twin towers read the names of the city's 2,750 victims -- a list that grew by one with the addition of a woman who died of lung disease in 2002. Several first responders referred to the illnesses and deaths of their colleagues that they blame on exposure to toxic dust.
"I want to acknowledge those lost post-9/11 as a result of answering the call, including police officer NYPD James Zadroga," volunteer ambulance worker Reggie Cervantes-Miller said.
Zadroga, 34, died more than a year ago of respiratory illness after spending hundreds of hours working to clean up Ground Zero.
Victims' spouses, children, siblings and parents had read names before, often breaking down with heartrending messages to their loved ones and blowing kisses to the sky. At Zuccotti Park, where the sounds of trucks and buses sometimes drowned out speakers, fewer tears were shed and most readers did not speak at length -- even when mentioning siblings or children who were killed.
Hundreds streamed out of the ceremony after about an hour and fewer than 60 remained at the end. The city estimated 3,500 family members and mourners turned out, down from 4,700 attendees at the fifth anniversary. Some might have been kept away by rain, a sharp contrast from the picture-perfect weather six years ago.
Ground Zero "was more sacred and sad," said Clarence White, whose brother was killed at the trade center.
At the park, he said, "the meaning wasn't as close."
The city moved the ceremony this year because of progressing construction at the site, where several idle cranes overlooked a partially built transit hub, 541m office tower and Sept. 11 memorial.
But family members had threatened to boycott the ceremony and hold their own remembrance if they were not granted access. The city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey -- which owns the trade center site -- allowed relatives to descend a ramp to lay flowers inside a reflecting pool with two 1.8m outlines of the towers inside, and touch the ground where the trade center once stood.
Howard Gabler, who worked on the 47th floor of the trade center's north tower and escaped on the day of the attack, came to mourn his son, Fredric, who worked on the 104th floor of the same tower. He has no remains of his son.
"This is where he died and we have nothing else," Gabler said.
Gabler said he touched the ground, which he fears will not be available to him next year as construction goes on.
"So today I kissed my hand and I kissed the ground -- I'm still kissing him," he said.
See:
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of