file photo by ArtChick https://artchickphotography.com/
It has been 14 years since a horrific Tuesday morning in September forever changed the lives of every American. While the scars will always remain, we will never forget.
We will never forget those we lost. We will never forget those who ran into danger to help their fellow man and woman. We will never forget that evil forces still conspire to destroy our very way of life. And we will never forget those who sacrifice everything to defend our freedom.
May God give comfort and peace to those who mourn loved ones today, and may God bless the United States of America.
Rep Scott Garrett
SEPTEMBER 10, 2015, 11:31 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015, 11:46 PM
BY MIKE KELLY
RECORD COLUMNIST |
THE RECORD
Time moves on. Tom and Josephine Acquaviva of Wayne know that all too well..
He’s 81 now; she’s 76.
But today, as they have every year since Sept. 11, 2001, they will make their way to the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan to hear two words:
Paul Acquaviva – the name of their son who died that day.
Commemorating 9/11 is an annual rite steeped in tradition. It is also a deeply personal ritual that helps many connect in a simple but meaningful way to the tragedy of that day and its human toll.
Each year at the Memorial Plaza that surrounds the acre-sized footprints of the World Trade Center towers, the names of each of the nearly 3,000 victims who perished on 9/11 are slowly read.
It is a solemn, three-hour ritual that evokes not only the sheer scope of the tragedy, but also how the 9/11 attacks touched so many diverse corners of America.
Names of janitors and waiters are recited along with those of stockbrokers and lawyers. There are immigrants from Africa and those whose families had lived in America for a century or more — an ethnic kaleidoscope that includes an “Adams” and an “Abad” in the first minutes and a “Zhao” and a “Zukelman” at the end.
But while the ceremony’s rhythms have become familiar to most of us, it has also become distressingly obvious in recent years that the size of the crowd — nearly 10,000 for the early ceremonies — has dwindled. In recent years, only about 100 people have lingered near the stage as the last names were read.
Like many victims’ relatives, Tom and Josephine Acquaviva say they have watched with sadness as the crowds have thinned. But they vow to stay as long as they can.
“No question about it, it’s gotten smaller,” said Tom. “But we can’t |forget.”
September 11th ,2001 Attack on America
