Friends and relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center attend a ceremony marking the 11th anniversary of the attacks at the National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. AP/Mark Lennihan
NEW YORK — Americans paused again Tuesday to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks with familiar ceremony, but also a sense that it’s time to move forward after a decade of remembrance.
As in past years, thousands were expected to gather at the World Trade Center site in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to read the names of nearly 3,000 victims killed in the worst terror attack in U.S. history. President Barack Obama was to attend the Pentagon memorial in Washington, and Vice President Joe Biden was to speak in Pennsylvania.
But many felt that last year’s 10th anniversary was an emotional turning point for public mourning of the attacks. For the first time, elected officials weren’t speaking at the ceremony, which often allowed them a solemn turn in the spotlight, but raised questions about the public and private Sept. 11 remembrances.
“I feel much more relaxed” this year, said Jane Pollicino, who came to ground zero Tuesday morning to remember her husband, who was killed at the trade center. “After the ninth anniversary, that next day, you started building up to the 10th year. This feels a lot different, in that regard. It’s another anniversary that we can commemorate in a calmer way, without that 10-year pressure.”
As bagpipes played at the year-old Sept. 11 memorial in New York, family clutching balloons, flowers and photos of their loved ones bowed their heads in silence at 8:46 a.m. local time, the moment that the first hijacked jetliner crashed into the trade center’s north tower. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama observed the moment in a ceremony on the White House’s south lawn. Victims’ families in New York began the solemn, familiar ritual of reading the names of nearly 3,000 killed.
Thousands had attended the ceremony in New York in previous years, including last year’s milestone 10th anniversary. Fewer than 500 family members had gathered by Tuesday morning, reading their loved ones’ names on the Sept. 11 memorial, built over the twin towers’ footprints.
Commuters rushed out of the subway and fewer police barricades were in place than in past years in the lower Manhattan neighborhood surrounding ground zero.
Families had a mixed reaction to the changing ceremony, which kept politicians away from the microphone in New York for the first time.
Charles G. Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, was killed at the trade center, said: “We’ve gone past that deep, collective public grief” and said it was appropriate that politicians no longer speak.
But Pollicino said it’s important that politicians still attend the ceremony.
“There’s something missing if they’re not here at all,” she said. “Now, all of a sudden, it’s ‘for the families.’ This happened to our country — it didn’t happen only to me.”
And Joe Torres, who put in 16-hour days in the “pit” in the days after the attacks, cleaning up tons of debris, said another year has changed nothing for him.
“The 11th year, for me, it’s the same as if it happened yesterday. It could be 50 years from now, and to me, it’ll be just as important as year one, or year five or year ten.”
Political leaders still are welcome to attend the ground zero ceremony, and they are expected at the other commemorations, as well.
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama plan to attend the Pentagon ceremony and visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Biden and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar are expected to speak at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, at the site where the hijacked United Airlines plane went down.
Officeholders from the mayor to presidents have been heard at the New York ceremony, reading texts ranging from parts of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address to poems by John Donne and Langston Hughes.
For former New York Gov. George Pataki, this year’s change ends a 10-year experience that was deeply personal, even as it reflected his political role. He was governor at the time of the attacks.
“As the names are read out, I just listen and have great memories of people who I knew very well who were on that list of names. It was very emotional,” Pataki reflected by phone last week. Among his friends who were killed was Neil Levin, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
But Pataki supports the decision not to have government figures speak.
“It’s time to take the next step, which is simply to continue to pay tribute,” Pataki said.
The National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum — led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg as its board chairman — announced in July that this year’s ceremony would include only relatives reading victims’ names.
The point, memorial President Joe Daniels said, was “honoring the victims and their families in a way free of politics” in an election year.
Some victims’ relatives and commentators praised the decision. “It is time” to extricate Sept. 11 from politics, the Boston Globe wrote in an editorial.
But others said keeping politicians off the rostrum smacked of … politics.
The move came amid friction between the memorial foundation and the governors of New York and New Jersey over financing for the museum — friction that abruptly subsided Monday, when Bloomberg and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an agreement that paves the way for finishing the $700 million project “as soon as practicable.”
Before the deal, Cuomo, a Democrat, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, had signaled their displeasure by calling on federal officials to give the memorial a financial and technical hand. Some victims’ relatives saw the no-politicians anniversary ceremony as retaliation.
“Banning the governors of New York and New Jersey from speaking is the ultimate political decision,” said one relatives’ group, led by retired Deputy Fire Chief Jim Riches. His firefighter son and namesake was killed responding to the burning World Trade Center.
Spokesmen for Christie and Cuomo said the governors were fine with the memorial organizers’ decision.
It’s impossible to remember the Sept. 11 attacks without remembering their impact on the nation’s political narrative, said Costas Panagopoulos, a Fordham University political science professor.
After all, “9/11 has defined politics in America” since 2001, Panagopoulos said. “At the end of the day, 9/11 was a public tragedy that affected the nation as a whole.”