JERRY SCHWARTZ
Associated Press National Writer
AP Photo/Doug Mills
U.S. President Bush shows his emotions as he waves the American Flag during the song "America the Beautiful," while attending a Service of Remembrance memorial for victims killed during the attack on America, at the Pentagon in Washington, Thursday.
|
The Rev. Michael Moynahan held up an envelope.
He had been asked again and again: Where was God when those planes struck the World Trade Center? Where was God when 11 members of his parish, St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church of Hartford, Conn., were murdered?
So at a service marking the month that had passed since terrorists left their indelible mark, Moynahan tried to explain: God was in the firefighters, police and ordinary people who reached out to save others, at the expense of their own lives.
And at last the priest held up the envelope that contained $22.75 -- money raised by 8-year-old John Paul Macurdy at a lemonade stand, money that would help families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
``God is right in this envelope,'' Moynahan said.
A month is too soon to make sense out of something so senseless, but Americans tried to do that Thursday. There were countless memorial services; there were fund-raisers for the families; there were informal gatherings of people who found themselves wanting to do something, anything, to mark the day.
Ed Figura was among the dozens who made their way to a field near Shanksville, Pa., where United Flight 93 plunged to the ground, killing all 44 on board. There is reason to believe the passengers fought the hijackers and brought the plane down before it could strike its target.
``Just the thought of people on an airplane saying, 'Hey, we're not going to let these guys get away with this' just makes you want to live your life better than you had been,'' said Figura, a 55-year-old salesman.
At the World Trade Center, there was a moment of silence at 8:48 a.m., the time the first plane hit there on Sept. 11. Workers at the ruins paused from the cleanup duties, took off their helmets and joined arm in arm.
``Sometimes it feels like yesterday,'' Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said. ``Sometimes it feels like a year ago, or more.''
At the Pentagon, there was a red rose on the seat of each relative of each victim _ the 125 people in the building and the 60 passengers and crew whose plane was taken over and crashed by hijackers.
``We will never forget all the innocent people killed by the hatred of a few,'' President Bush said. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said: ``Their deaths, like their lives, shall have meaning.''
There were memorial services in Cleveland and Boston and London's St. Paul's Cathedral, where British firefighters mourned their fallen brethren in New York.
In Denver, hundreds gathered for a service organized by the United Airlines' flight attendants union to honor co-workers who were killed.
The bells in Denver's City and County Building were rung for one minute. And second graders at Westgate Elementary School were constructing a 65-foot-by-90-foot American flag from 6,000 paper squares on the school's playground.
Each square represents a life lost on Sept. 11. Some are decorated with drawings and messages from the children of the Denver suburb of Lakewood -- messages like, ``We hope that our country will not be hurt anymore.''
Restaurants nationwide pledged to give part of the day's proceeds to funds for the victims' families.
Students at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Ky., raised about $5,000 with a six-hour swim-a-thon to assist the relief effort. Members of the school's swim team, joined by other swimmers, covered 206 miles -- the estimated distance between the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
It was a lesson in serving others, said swim coach Mike O'Toole: ``They will remember this for the rest of their lives.''
At Boston's Logan Airport, United and American Airlines employees began a monthlong ``flag run,'' symbolically completing the planned flight paths of the two jets that were hijacked out of Logan and crashed into the trade center. Employees lined up 1,400 volunteers to relay an American flag cross-country, 24 hours a day. It is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Nov. 11, Veterans Day.
And in Dearborn, Mich., they did not honor Haifa Fakhouri. Thursday night was supposed to be a tribute to Fakhouri, president of the Arab-American and Chaldean Council, but she decided it was too soon after the attacks for that type of celebration.
``We said, `let's turn it around and have an interfaith service,''' said Donna Di Sante, spokeswoman for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Relations, sponsor of the event. ``The idea of bringing people together for understanding and brotherhood got the interest of everyone involved.''
So the International Institute children's choir sang, Fakhouri and Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, also to have been honored at the tribute, spoke. There were readings from the Bible and the Quran.
``Thirty days later, America still faces an uncertain future,'' said the Rev. Kenneth Flowers, pastor of Greater New Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Detroit. ``Thirty days later, our hearts still weep bitter tears.''
Related:
