newjerseynewsroom.com

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The day began with news reports that seemed unbelievable. Then came the realization that what was happening was very real. We sat and watched television, too numb to move, as survivors fled Manhattan and the two great towers of the World Trade Center crumbled.

Nine years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the memories are clear as day for too many.

A day of mourning for nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims began with moments of silence and tears near ground zero, as observers braced for protests over a mosque planned blocks away on what is usually an anniversary free of politics.

According to NJ.com, President Barack Obama, speaking at "hallowed ground" at the Pentagon, alluded to the controversy over a mosque — and a Florida pastor's threat, later rescinded, to burn copies of the Muslim holy book. Obama made it clear that the U.S. is not at war with Islam and called the al-Qaeda attackers "a sorry band of men" who perverted religion.

In New Jersey, residents gathering today at the Morris County Sept. 11th Memorial for a somber ceremony of remembrance may take special pride in the site, which the Daily Record reports was one of 10 memorials across the country featured by Parade magazine in its Sept. 5 edition.

Also, Mount Laurel Fire Department Capt. Todd Evans has made sure the memory of that day and the 300 plus firefighters who died won't be lost on members of the department and residents who drive by Station 362 on Church Road.

The Courier-Post reports that Evans played a major role in obtaining a 17-foot, 800-pound twisted I-beam removed from the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. It will be the focal point of a memorial to be placed in front of the Church Road firehouse.

Moments of silence were held at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:59 a.m. and 10:28 a.m. to mark the times the hijacked jetliners hit the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, as well as the times they collapsed.

Still time has moved on. According to the Asbury Park Press, nine years after the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center, the House is on the verge of passing legislation that would address health issues caused by the smoldering fires at ground zero and the toxic dust that blanketed nearby streets.

Residents of lower Manhattan, first responders and volunteers from around the country who worked at ground zero have reported a growing number of illnesses.

The bill would cost an estimated $7 billion over 10 years.

Back at the site, the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum is scheduled to open in two years. There is still some controversy as it is to be built in the Trade Center's foundation pit. The museum's most poignant items will include two $2 bills, some cellphone bills, a 1993 "Welcome Back to the World Trade Center" mug and the contents of a woman's pocketbook.

USA Today reports that all have been donated to the museum, which is asking families of those killed in the 2001 attacks for photos, personal items or mementos - things to show posterity that at the start of the 21st century, there were people with achievements, passions and dreams that terrorism could not erase.

As John Hodgman of the Daily Show, of all people, wrote for a reading nine years ago, time goes on, this will all pass away into memory, into a story with a beginning and a middle and finally an end. And that transition from the real into fable will bring its own kind of comfort and pain. Now, though, we may gather and distract one another, take comfort in our proximity, and know that we are, at this moment, safe.

Not many of my ideas seem bright anymore, and I am not a teacher. I am only humbled: to be here, to be alive.