The United States honored, Sunday, September 11, the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed during the worst attacks ever known by the country, 21 years earlier.
In New York, crowds gathered near the impressive Manhattan Memorial Museum fell silent several times for minutes of silence, marking the exact moments when the four planes hijacked by Islamist commandos crashed, and when the two towers of the World Trade Center had collapsed in a deluge of steel and dust. Among the audience present, Vice President Kamala Harris listened to the very long list of names of the victims.
“The grief fades a little with 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 having read the name of his father. Another victim’s relative, calling on the political figures present to heal America’s deep divisions, said that“We shouldn’t need another tragedy to unite our nation”.
Joe Biden at the Pentagon
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.
In Washington, 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, under a light rain.
Joe Biden has 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”had written the sovereign.
“The course of American history changed that day”, resumed the president. But what didn’t change was “the character of this nation”, “sacrifices, love, generosity” of which the United States is capable, he hammered. “Today is not about the past, but about the future”continued Joe Biden, calling on Americans to defend democracy, the guarantee of the freedom that the terrorists had wanted “to bury under fire, smoke and ashes”.
“Solidarity”
Jill Biden, first lady of the United States, took part in a ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. September 11th “reminds us that with courage and kindness, we can be a light in this darkness”she said, while adding that the initiatives of the passengers of Flight 93 had saved many lives, including perhaps that of her husband, then a United States senator, who was traveling to the Capitol that day.
On many professional sports grounds across the country, tributes were also paid for this symbolic date, in particular by the New York City teams.
International officials also paid tribute to the victims of this attack which marked the whole world.
“As we remember 9/11 and the innocent lives lost, we also remember the solidarity that held us together during those dark hours”tweeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Beyond the terrible toll of thousands of deaths and injuries, thousands more died in the following years from illnesses caused by toxic fumes from the collapse of the Twin Towers.