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US marks 21st anniversary of 9/11 attacks : NPR

FILE – Citizens arrive at the South Pool after the conclusion of ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks at the National September 11th Memorial Museum in New York City, September 11, 2021. On Sunday, September 11, 2022, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband will pay their respects at the Ground Her Zero ceremony.

Matt Rourke/AP


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Matt Rourke/AP


FILE – Citizens arrive at the South Pool after the conclusion of ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks at the National September 11th Memorial Museum in New York City, September 11, 2021. On Sunday, September 11, 2022, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband will pay their respects at the Ground Her Zero ceremony.

Matt Rourke/AP

NEW YORK — Americans remember 9/11 with silence, reading the names of victims, volunteer work and other tributes as 21 years have passed since the deadliest terrorist attack on the continental United States.

Victims’ relatives and dignitaries will gather on Sunday at the site of the September 11, 2001 hijacked jet crash, the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania airfield.

Other communities across the country celebrate the day with candle vigils, interfaith services, and other commemorations. Some Americans participate in volunteer projects on days recognized by the federal government as both Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance.

The event follows last year’s difficult milestone anniversary. It was just weeks after the chaotic and humble end to the war in Afghanistan that the United States launched in response to the attack.

But even if this September 11th isn’t an inflection point, the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, fueled America’s “war on terror” around the world, and reshaped national security policies are. , remains to be considered.

It also, for a time, stirred a sense of national pride and unity for many, while exposing Muslim Americans to years of suspicion and prejudice and debate about the balance between security and civil liberties. In subtle and palpable ways, the aftermath of 9/11 ripples through American politics and public life to this day.

And the attacks cast a long shadow over the personal lives of thousands of people who have survived, dealt with, or lost loved ones, friends, and colleagues.

More than 70 of Sekou Siby’s colleagues died at Windows on the World, a restaurant in the North Tower of the Trade Center. Sibby was due to work that morning until another cook asked him to change shifts.

Sibby never got a job at a restaurant again. It would have brought back too many memories. Côte d’Ivoire immigrants grappled with the question of how to make sense of such fears in a country they came in search of a better life.

He found it difficult to form the close, family-like friendships he shared with his Windows on the World colleagues. He’s learned that it’s too painful to be attached to people when “you can’t control what happens to them next.”

“Every 9/11 is a reminder that I can never get back what I lost,” says Siby, now president and CEO of ROC United. The advocacy group for restaurant workers grew out of a relief center for Windows on the World workers who lost their jobs in the collapse of the Twin Towers.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden will address and lay a wreath at the Pentagon, and First Lady Jill Biden will address in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The hijackers headed for Washington. Al-Qaeda co-conspirators took control of the jet and used it as a passenger-carrying missile.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are scheduled to attend the National 9/11 Memorial in New York, but traditionally politicians do not speak at ground zero ceremonies. The emphasis is on reading the names of the dead aloud.

Readers often add personal remarks that form an alloy of American sentiments about 9/11 — grief, anger, toughness, gratitude to first responders and the military, appeals to patriotism, hopes for peace, The occasional political barb, and a poignant account of graduation. , the weddings, births and daily lives that the victims missed.

Some relatives have also lamented the fragmentation of a somewhat cohesive country after the attack. Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that have focused on international terrorism since 9/11 now see the threat of domestic violent extremism as equally immediate.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/11/1122247528/us-marks-21st-anniversary-of-9-11-terror-attacks US marks 21st anniversary of 9/11 attacks : NPR

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