Circle of Hope

posted by ewing2001 on Thursday September 11, @01:16AM

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Marchers carry memories and find moments to mourn

Newsday - September 11, 2003

More than 1,000 demonstrators carrying flowers, flashlights and glow sticks in paper bags solemnly marched from Union Square to Ground Zero last night and formed a "circle of hope" where 2,792 people lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The silent vigil, which included no political speeches, placards or organization signs, was dedicated to peace and the memory of the victims. For safety reasons, candles also were banned. A flute player led the marchers, some holding pictures of the fallen.

The two-hour march and encirclement ceremony ended at 9:45 p.m. with the pealing of a St. Paul Chapel bell driven from the nearby church to the site on the back of a trailer.

"This is just a way to protect the site and avoid politics," said Andrew Rice of Oklahoma City, a member of the sponsoring group, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. He said 120 similar vigils were conducted around the world last night.

"We need to remember the victims and their individual lives," said Rice, whose brother, David Rice, a bond broker at the Sandler O'Neill investment bank, was killed in the attack. "In the beginning, there was a lot of that. Now we have less and less about the victims, and the focus has switched to Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Tonight is a healing time."

"It's what's needed," Michelle Crichlow of Manhattan, who lost a friend in the crash of the hijacked plane that went down in Shanksville, Pa., said of the peaceful vigil. "In the midst of all the political stuff, there is mourning and people need to be able to do that."

The vigil on the eve of the second anniversary of the terrorist attack, came as the city geared up for a series of observances today in houses of worship, firehouses and in cemeteries, parks and on beaches.

The main ceremony will be at Ground Zero, where four separate moments of silence will be observed at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:59 a.m. and 10:29 a.m. - the times the two hijacked planes struck and the times when each tower fell. The names of the victims will be read by 200 children.

At 8:46 a.m., fire trucks will be pulled onto the aprons of all city firehouses, where members will stand mute for one minute. A prayer for the 343 Fire Department members who died in the attack will be read by company officers.

At 2 p.m., Vice President Dick Cheney will join Gov. George Pataki and New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey at a remembrance service at Riverside Church on the Upper West Side for the 84 employees of the Port Authority who were killed at the trade center.

Earlier yesterday, several hundred relatives of the victims demonstrated at Ground Zero, protesting any commercial development of the site.

Members of the Coalition for 9/11 Families, who wore yellow and black ribbons and carried signs saying "Preserve Sacred Ground," said the bedrock where the Twin Towers once stood is hallowed and should be developed only with a memorial.

They also criticized Pataki and McGreevey for allowing the Port Authority to construct four emergency exits at the site for a temporary trade center train station, which is set to open in November.

"I would like to see a lasting memorial, something you can go to and learn about the history of what happened," said Wakeland Higgins, whose wife, Malissa White, an employee of Marsh & McLennan, died in Tower One.

Patricia Riley of Staten Island, who lost her sister, Lorraine Lee, said development of the site with commercial structures would destroy its historic signficance. "Future generations will judge them for the failure of building on sacred ground," she said. "One hundred years from how they will be digging it back up and preserving it."

Also on hand for the protest were 200 firefighters belonging to a group called Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial. The group believes that uniformed officers who were killed in the attack should be identified at the memorial site by department, rank, badge number and unit.

The demonstrators heard a taped message from former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani saying Ground Zero should be designated as sacred ground. "The reality is if this is going to work the design should reflect what has happened here," he said.

In a statement distributed to the demonstrators, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. responded to what it called "misperceptions" about the exact location of the proposed development at the site.

"We will never, ever build commercial or retail space where those towers once soared to the heavens," the statement said. "We will build a memorial that will make our entire nation proud."

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