The United States honored on Sunday the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed during the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001. In New York, the crowd gathered near the impressive museum-memorial of Manhattan was silent several times for minutes of silence, marking the exact moments when the four planes hijacked by Islamist commandos had crashed, and when the two towers of the World Trade Center had collapsed in a deluge of steel and dust.
In the audience in New York, Vice President Kamala Harris listened to the very long list of victims’ names. Joe Biden participated in another ceremony, at the Pentagon. “The grief fades a little over time, but the permanent absence of my father remains just as present,” said the son of Jon Leslie Albert, one of the victims of the attacks, after reading his father’s name. Another relative of the victim, calling on the political figures present to heal the deep divisions of America, affirmed that “we should not need another tragedy to unite our nation”.
“Sorrow is the price to pay for love”
In Washington, President Joe Biden gathered at the Pentagon. Looking solemn, one hand on his heart, he took part in a wreath laying ceremony near the building where one of the hijacked planes had crashed, killing 184 people. “I know that for those who have lost someone, 21 years is both an eternity and such a short time,” said the Democrat from the podium, in a fine rain.
Joe Biden shared a message sent on September 11, 2001 by Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday, to the American people. “Sorrow is the price to pay for love,” wrote the sovereign. “The course of American history changed that day,” continued the president.
On September 11, 2001, 2,977 people died in the deadliest attacks in history, committed by the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda. Two planes had struck the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York, a third had ripped open the Pentagon and a fourth, which appeared to be aimed at the Capitol or the White House, had crashed in a wooded area in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after a passenger counterattack. No one on board the four planes survived.