By Felix Hoover

For YourNewsColumbus

Posted 09-11-09

 

The nightmarish sight of planes crashing into historic landmarks and snuffing out thousands of lives makes Sept. 11, 2001 a date that Americans would like to forget.

Pragmatism, patriotism and promises to the fallen make 9/11 a Day of Remembrance.

The 2,999 flags planted on the west lawn of the Statehouse pay homage to the people who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a vacant field in Shanksville, Pa., as a result of terrorist assaults that infamous day.

Throughout the day, workers and visitors to Downtown stopped to take photographs of the banners and to read signs that explained the flag formation, which outlined the crash sites.

Anyone who wanted to do more than contemplate the day was welcome to attend the annual ceremony at City Hall, which was presented by the city's Veterans Committee.

Erika Jones, the city advocate for the homeless and social services, was clear about why she was part of the audience on the Portman Plaza for the program.

"This is the first piece of national history, world history that I was part of," she said. "I don't think a moment of silence in my office was enough."

Greg Beaverson, with the city's department of finance and management, was a second lieutenant stationed at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota the day of the attacks. At Friday's ceremony he gave a detailed account of how security alerts ratcheted up as word of each strike arrived. Distant as Minot was from the attack sites, the threat created intense uncertainty Bombers were on highest readiness.

"We were strategic," Beaverson said. "In our world, strategic can be synonymous with another word, nuclear."

The question was whether the bad guys would come through Canada to show they could attack a military base in this country, he said.

Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy expressed gratitude to Greg for reminding us that military personnel and public servants responded to the emergency and its aftermath.

She had attended a remembrance ceremony is Washington earlier in the week. As such, she had seen the plaque placed at the visitors center in the U.S. Capitol with the names of all of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 who resisted hijackers who apparently planned to use the aircraft to assault the White House or the Capitol.

"Their words 'let's roll' protected the nation's Capitol, and preserved the symbol of the greatest democracy in the world." Kilroy said.

The speakers paid tribute not only to those who lost their lives eight years ago, but also to today's military and public-safety servants who put their lives on the line daily in defense of their homeland.