Americans are marking 24 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work, and other tributes to the victims.
Many loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed will join dignitaries and politicians at commemorations on Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Others choose to mark the day in more intimate gatherings.
James Lynch, who lost his father, Robert Lynch, during the World Trade Center attack, said he and his family will attend a ceremony near his hometown in New Jersey before spending the day at the beach.
The tributes are taking place amid heightened political tensions. The 9/11 anniversary, often promoted as a day of national unity, comes one day after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college in Utah.
The reading of names and moments of silence
Kirk’s death is expected to lead to additional security measures around the 9/11 anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center site in New York, authorities said.
At ground zero in Lower Manhattan, the names of the attack victims will be read aloud by family members and loved ones at a ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Second Lady Usha Vance. Moments of silence will mark the exact times when the hijacked planes struck the iconic Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, as well as when the skyscrapers collapsed.
At the Pentagon in Virginia, the 184 military personnel and civilians killed when hijackers flew a jet into U.S. military headquarters will be honored. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will attend the service before heading to the Bronx for a baseball game between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers on Thursday night.
And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a similar ceremony, marked by moments of silence, name readings, and wreath-laying, will honor the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. That service will be attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.
Like Lynch, people across the country are also marking the 9/11 anniversary with service projects and charity work as part of a national day of service. Volunteers will take part in food and clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood drives, and other community events.
The repercussions of the attacks persist
In total, the al-Qaida militants’ attacks killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers in the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who rushed into the burning buildings trying to save lives.
The attacks had global repercussions and changed the course of U.S. policy both domestically and abroad. They led to the “Global War on Terrorism” and U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians.
Although the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has struggled to conclude its long legal case against the man accused of planning the attack, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The former al-Qaida leader was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and subsequently taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never been tried.
The anniversary ceremony in New York is taking place at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, where two memorial pools surrounded by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the dead mark the sites where the Twin Towers once stood.
The Trump administration has been considering ways the federal government could take control of the memorial plaza and its underground museum, which are now managed by a public charity organization currently chaired by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic. Trump has spoken about possibly turning the site into a national monument.
In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens of thousands of people exposed to toxic dust that blanketed parts of Manhattan when the Twin Towers collapsed. More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs designed to identify those with health conditions that could potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the debris.
Source: www.npr.org