thedrifter
09-11-09, 07:50 AM
President to remember victims of 9/11 attacks
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 11, 2009 7:47:08 EDT
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will lead the country Friday in pausing to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Remembering 9/11: Video, photos of memorial
VIDEO
http://www.militarytimes.com/projects/sept11_memorial/
Nearly 3,000 people died eight years ago as hijacked jetliners smashed into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama will observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time, the moment the first jetliner struck one of the World Trade Center towers.
Later, the president will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed. A memorial there honoring the victims was opened last year.
Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are to meet with victims’ relatives.
The president will “speak about what the day means and the sacrifices of thousands, not just at the Pentagon, but in Pennsylvania and certainly and most obviously in New York,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to attend the ceremony in New York, where thousands planned moments of silence four times — twice for when jetliners crashed into a Trade Center tower, and for the moments the towers collapsed.
Near Shanksville, Pa., where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, former Secretary of State Colin Powell will deliver the keynote speech.
At 10:03 a.m., the time the plane crashed, the names of the 40 passengers and crew will be read and bells will be tolled.
Among the hundreds of people expected to attend is Jose Melendez-Perez, a Customs agent credited with refusing entry to the country a man officials believe was supposed to be the fifth hijacker aboard the flight.
The official 9/11 Commission report said hijackers deliberately crashed the plane in Pennsylvania as passengers were trying to wrest control of the cockpit.
In addition to the aforementioned, many are treating the day as a day of volunteerism and service.
“Instead of us simply remembering the horrible events and more importantly the heroes who lost their lives on 9/11, we are all going to turn into local heroes,” said Ted Tenenbaum, a Los Angeles repair shop owner who offered free handyman services Thursday and planned to do so again Friday.
Similar donations of time and labor were planned across the country after Obama and Congress declared the day would be dedicated to service this year for the first time.
Some Americans are suspicious about the new commemoration, though, fearing it could overshadow a somber day of remembrance.
“When I first heard about it, I was concerned,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the American Airlines pilot of the hijacked jet that crashed into the Pentagon. “I fear, I greatly fear, at some point we’ll transition to turning it into Earth Day where we go and plant trees and the remembrance part will become smaller, and smaller, and smaller.”
In a column in American Spectator magazine last month, conservative commentator Matthew Vadum wrote that the push for volunteerism was an attempt “to try to change 9/11 from a day of reflection and remembrance to a day of activism, food banks and community gardens.”
The criticism didn’t dampen spirits of those who planned to participate, though.
A Boston group founded by victims’ family members — two of the four planes left from Boston — planned to write letters to U.S. soldiers overseas and pack CARE packages. In San Diego, Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard is sponsoring a cleanup of Ocean Beach.
Volunteers who made firefighters’ meals or helped remove tons of debris from the World Trade Center site planned to join family members to read names of more than 2,700 victims killed when hijacked jetliners crashed into the towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
Ellie
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Sep 11, 2009 7:47:08 EDT
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will lead the country Friday in pausing to remember the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Remembering 9/11: Video, photos of memorial
VIDEO
http://www.militarytimes.com/projects/sept11_memorial/
Nearly 3,000 people died eight years ago as hijacked jetliners smashed into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania.
The president and first lady Michelle Obama will observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time, the moment the first jetliner struck one of the World Trade Center towers.
Later, the president will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed. A memorial there honoring the victims was opened last year.
Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are to meet with victims’ relatives.
The president will “speak about what the day means and the sacrifices of thousands, not just at the Pentagon, but in Pennsylvania and certainly and most obviously in New York,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.
Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to attend the ceremony in New York, where thousands planned moments of silence four times — twice for when jetliners crashed into a Trade Center tower, and for the moments the towers collapsed.
Near Shanksville, Pa., where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed, former Secretary of State Colin Powell will deliver the keynote speech.
At 10:03 a.m., the time the plane crashed, the names of the 40 passengers and crew will be read and bells will be tolled.
Among the hundreds of people expected to attend is Jose Melendez-Perez, a Customs agent credited with refusing entry to the country a man officials believe was supposed to be the fifth hijacker aboard the flight.
The official 9/11 Commission report said hijackers deliberately crashed the plane in Pennsylvania as passengers were trying to wrest control of the cockpit.
In addition to the aforementioned, many are treating the day as a day of volunteerism and service.
“Instead of us simply remembering the horrible events and more importantly the heroes who lost their lives on 9/11, we are all going to turn into local heroes,” said Ted Tenenbaum, a Los Angeles repair shop owner who offered free handyman services Thursday and planned to do so again Friday.
Similar donations of time and labor were planned across the country after Obama and Congress declared the day would be dedicated to service this year for the first time.
Some Americans are suspicious about the new commemoration, though, fearing it could overshadow a somber day of remembrance.
“When I first heard about it, I was concerned,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the American Airlines pilot of the hijacked jet that crashed into the Pentagon. “I fear, I greatly fear, at some point we’ll transition to turning it into Earth Day where we go and plant trees and the remembrance part will become smaller, and smaller, and smaller.”
In a column in American Spectator magazine last month, conservative commentator Matthew Vadum wrote that the push for volunteerism was an attempt “to try to change 9/11 from a day of reflection and remembrance to a day of activism, food banks and community gardens.”
The criticism didn’t dampen spirits of those who planned to participate, though.
A Boston group founded by victims’ family members — two of the four planes left from Boston — planned to write letters to U.S. soldiers overseas and pack CARE packages. In San Diego, Dave Matthews Band bassist Stefan Lessard is sponsoring a cleanup of Ocean Beach.
Volunteers who made firefighters’ meals or helped remove tons of debris from the World Trade Center site planned to join family members to read names of more than 2,700 victims killed when hijacked jetliners crashed into the towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
Ellie