Special commemorative ceremonies held across nation

By Wendy S. Ross and Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Correspondents

Washington -- Across the United States September 11 Americans marked the second anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States with prayer services, moments of silence, placing of wreaths, and candlelight vigils.

At 8:46 a.m., New York City paused in silence to commemorate the time the first hijacked plane hit one of the World Trade Center's towers. Afterwards in a simple but moving ceremony that commemorated the past but looked to the future, children read the names of the 2,798 people who died in the terrorist attack on New York.

The ceremony paused four times -- twice to mark the times the two planes hit the towers -- and twice to mark the times the towers fell. Churches and fire stations around the city tolled their bells. While the names were read, family members descended the ramp to the site and laid flowers in two small rectangular reflecting pools representing the footprints of the 110-story twin towers that were destroyed.

The sorrowful litany of names was read by 200 children and young adults. Two by two, the children stood and read at the simple podium in the deep pit at Ground Zero, each ending with the name of his or her father, mother, brother, uncle, grandfather, or other relative who died that day two years ago.

It is in the children, said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, "that the spirit of New York lies, carrying both our deepest memories and the bright promises of tomorrow."

"We remember with pride and from that comes our resolve to go forward. Our focus and hopes turn toward the future," Bloomberg said.

Instead of speeches, New York Governor George Pataki; Rudolph Giuliani, who was the city's mayor at the time of the attack; and Bloomberg read poems of remembrance and inspiration.

In the nation's capitol, President Bush also led a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House at 8:46 A.M.

Several hundred White House staff members -- from white-collar workers in suits to maintenance workers in uniforms to kitchen personnel in white cooking smocks -- assembled along with the president and first lady for the moment of silence.

The noise of a jetliner taking off from Reagan National airport was the only audible sound.

Earlier, the president and first lady and several top members of the cabinet, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, attended an inter-denominational prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church near the White House.

"We remember a sad and terrible day, September 11th, 2001. We remember lives lost. We remember the heroic deeds. We remember the compassion and the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day," Bush told reporters following the service.

"Also today is a day of prayer," he said. "We pray for the husbands and wives and moms and dads and sons and daughters and loved ones of those who still grieve and hurt. We pray for strength and wisdom. We thank God for the many blessings of this nation, and we ask His blessings on those who especially hurt today."

Later in the day, Bush visited with wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington.

And, at the State Department, Secretary of State Colin Powell led his colleagues in an early morning remembrance ceremony.

"[T]ogether, we honor the souls from 90 nations who perished at the Twin Towers in New York, at the Pentagon and in a Pennsylvania field," Powell said.

"They were men and women of every continent, culture and creed -- of every region, race and religion. Our prayers are with the families and friends of the fallen.

"Our thoughts also are with the families and friends of all those around the world who have lost loved ones to terrorism from Madrid to Moscow and Manila, from Bali to Baghdad and Bogotá, from Karachi to Riyadh and Nairobi, from Jerusalem to Dar es Salaam and Amman."

Powell said "We, the men and women of the Department of State, can pay no greater tribute to their memory than to work with good people across the globe to build a world of peace, prosperity and freedom where terrorism cannot thrive."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld presided over a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, near the Pentagon, where 184 people died when a third hijacked plane slammed into the building.

Other ceremonies were held in the state of Pennsylvania, where a fourth hijacked airliner crashed into a field, killing all 40 persons aboard.

The 2003 official observances of the September 11th tragedy were more low-key than those of the previous year. President Bush did not give a formal speech or travel to New York and Pennsylvania as he did on the first anniversary of the attacks.

The day was scheduled to end quietly at sunset in New York City with two beams of light shining into the sky at the site of the destroyed twin towers as a "Tribute in Light."

Talking with journalists in New York on September 10, former mayor Rudolph Giuliani remembered the attack in which he and aides were trapped in a Trade Center building and narrowly escaped with their lives, the rescue efforts that followed, and the city's remarkable recovery. Giuliani became known as "America's mayor" for his courage, strength, and skill in leading the city during that time.

Giuliani said that in 2003 "New York City is, as I asked it to be, on September 11, 2001; I asked the city of New York to be stronger than it was before the attack and it has more than exceeded anything I could possibly have thought back then.

"The city is more vital, the city is rebuilding, the city is even more diverse. Its population has grown rather than contracted. ... And the city of New York, most importantly, is spiritually stronger," he said.

Giuliani said the city's strength arises from two sources: freedom and immigration.

"People who live in freedom have more strength than people who live in oppression," he said. "We're a city of immigrants, and we keep renewing ourselves every single day with new people who come from all different parts of the world who want to make a better life from themselves and their family."

"Every single country in the world is represented here," Giuliani said. "Every religion, every ethnic group, and every time I greeted a foreign visitor or businessperson or government official in New York City, I always felt comfortable that I could find somebody from their village who lived in New York City because it's such a diverse place."

The World Trade Center site is a dramatically different place than it was two years ago, New York officials say, noting that signs of the city's determined progress are everywhere.

The ground has been cleared and a design for new buildings on the site has been selected; work is on schedule for construction to begin in mid-2004. A panel is reviewing design submissions -- from 49 U.S. states and 62 nations including Kuwait, South Africa, Lebanon, Singapore, Albania, Jordan, and Columbia -- for a permanent World Trade Center Memorial that will be the centerpiece of the site.

New York City officials report that the neighborhoods around the site are rebounding: the residential community has returned, businesses are back in the area, the area's high school has opened, and the transportation network that connected lower Manhattan to the rest of the region has been restored.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)