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NEW YORK – Millions of people solemnly celebrated the 20th anniversary of September 11, commemorating the dead, summoning the heroes and taking stock of the aftermath just weeks after the bloody end of the war in Afghanistan that was unleashed in response to the attacks terrorists.
The ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City began exactly two decades after the start of the deadliest terrorist act on American soil with the first of four hijacked planes crashing into one of the World Trade Center’s twin towers.
“It was as if an evil specter had descended on our world, but it was also a time when many people were acting beyond the ordinary,” said Mike Low, whose daughter, Sara Low, was a hostess. air in this plane.
“As we continue these 20 years, I find my sustenance in a continuing appreciation for all who have become more than ordinary people,” the father told a crowd including President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
The anniversary took place under the veil of a pandemic and in the shadow of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which is now led by the same Taliban militant group that gave refuge to the 9/11 plotters.
“It’s difficult because you were hoping it would be just another time and another world. But sometimes history starts to repeat itself and not in the best possible 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 actors Kelli O’Hara and Chris Jackson performed at the commemoration, but traditionally no politician spoke. In a video posted Friday night, Biden addressed the lingering pain of loss, but also highlighted what he called the “central lesson” of September 11: “that to our most vulnerable … unity is our greatest strength “.
Biden was also paying homage to two other sites where the 9/11 conspirators crashed the jets: the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa. Together, the attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.
At the Pennsylvania site – where passengers and crew fought to regain control of a plane allegedly targeted at the United States Capitol or the White House – former President George W. Bush said that September 11 had shown that Americans could come together despite their differences.
“Much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment,” the incumbent president said on September 11. “On the day of America’s trial and mourning, I saw millions of people instinctively grab hold of their neighbor’s hand and rally to each other’s cause. This is the America I know.
“This is the truest version of ourselves. This is what we have been and what we can be again.
Calvin Wilson said a polarized country had “missed the message” of the heroism of the flight’s passengers and crew, including his brother-in-law, LeRoy Homer.
“We are not focusing on the damage. We don’t focus on hate. We don’t focus on retaliation. We’re not focusing on revenge, ”Wilson said before the ceremony. “We are focused on the good that all of our loved ones have done.”
Former President Donald Trump visited a New York police station and fire station, praising the bravery of the responders while criticizing Biden for the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“It was blatant incompetence,” said Trump, who was scheduled to comment on a boxing match in Florida that evening.
More celebrations – from a wreath laying in Portland, Maine, to a firefighter parade in Guam – were planned in a country now filled with 9/11 memorial plaques, statues and gardens.
The attacks ushered in a new era of fear, war, patriotism, and ultimately polarization.
They redefined security, changed airport checkpoints, policing practices and government oversight powers.
A “war on terror” led to invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, where America’s longest war ended last month with a massive and rushed airlift punctuated by a suicide bombing which killed 169 Afghans and 13 US servicemen and was assigned to a branch of the Islamic State extremist group. The United States is now concerned that al-Qaida, the terrorist network behind 9/11, could regroup in Afghanistan, where the Taliban flag once again flew over the presidential palace on Saturday.
Two decades after helping sort and treat wounded colleagues at the Pentagon on September 11, retired Army Col. Malcolm Bruce Westcott is saddened and frustrated by the continued threat of terrorism.
“I always thought my generation, my military cohort, would take care of it – we wouldn’t pass it on to anyone else,” said Westcott, of Greensboro, Ga. “And we passed it on.”
Flowers adorn the names of those killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, as families gather at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City on the 20th anniversary of the attacks on Saturday, September 11, 2021 .
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