The 20th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001 marks an important milestone–it is hard to believe it has been two decades since such a watershed event took place. Across our nation and the world there are ceremonies remembering the lives lost on that day and the days to follow and the heroism that we witnessed. We had several of those ceremonies here in St. Mary’s County.
First, I started off the day on St. Clement’s Island–the birthplace of religious freedom. It is where settlers from England landed and performed the first Catholic mass in America and today it played host to another ceremony. Organized by Southern Maryland ROOTS Youth Group, this ceremony was dedicated to first responders and honoring their sacrifices. The weather was incredible and after the boat ride to the island we gathered under the cross for the presentation of colors from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Color Guard and an inspiring singing of the National Anthem by Cora Bessette, a student at St. Mary’s Ryken High School. Senator Jack Bailey was the first guest speaker and then I provided some comments and observations on the day. Other speakers included our Director of Emergency Services, Steve Walker, Maryland State Trooper Sgt Casey Ruth, Capt Steve Hall of the Sheriff’s Office and Board of Education member Rita Weaver.
I wrestled all week with finding the right words to say, but I found some inspiration in the morning looking at a news site. Here is a paraphrased portion of my remarks: “We all have morning routines that we fall into. For me, once I sit down at my computer I usually look at several news sites first thing in the morning–it is not a practice that I recommend, it does not make for a better start to your day. Today, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I opened up CNN’s website and the top headline read “20 Years after 9/11, the US is at War with Itself.” This bothered me and angered me. I understand why they said it; the mainstream media, however your political affiliation lies, is run as a business and is trying to sell advertising, so they need inflammatory headlines. However, if I worked at CNN, I would have written the headline to read “20 Years After 9/11, Firefighters are still rescuing people, EMTs are still saving lives, and Police are still protecting us.” Thank you to all of our first responders who still work to protect us every day…to those who choose to run toward a fire, toward danger, up the stairs while everyone else is running down.”
It was an incredible event with a great turnout in an absolutely beautiful location. I was honored to be able to participate.
In the evening I was in Leonardtown for a ceremony organized and run by the Foundation for Heroes. This is the second year they held this, and if you were anywhere near by after dark then you probably saw the two twin pillars of light beaming up towards heaven in remembrance of the twin towers. Along with many other community members, including Senator Bailey, several other commissioners, and numerous police officers and firefighers, we took turns reading the names of every person who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. It was powerful and awe inspiring, and I am grateful to the Foundation for Heroes for organizing this event again–it takes a lot of organizing, funding, and work to make such a huge event appear so seamless. Each person participating had a list of names that took about four or five minutes to read. My list included the father of one of my college friends-he lost his life in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Whatever your experiences were on that fateful day, I hope you were able to take some time to reflect on this tragedy that has touched us all.
