There's a number of memorials to the 5th anniversary of 9/11 planned in-world for today, including the one depicted above, a site in Shakers Stoop by Shikima Riel (direct portal here). Details on that event and others available here. For my part, I wanted to begin the day with selected passages from a couple NWN posts published two years ago, largely reported from a mountainside plot the owner had donated for free-build 9/11 memorials-- stories of Residents sharing grief, resolve, and on occasion, transcendance.
From "In the Towers of No Shadow", originally published September 11, 2004:
Billy Madison and several residents gather around, as Skunken Gascoigne explains the inspirations behind his site.
"One of the biggest is, of course, the famous photo of the firefighters raising a flag above the rubble," he says. "Bit of a myth has grown about that one, in fact. The myth came about as such-- it was claimed by a few that the flag was found amidst the rubble at Ground Zero.
"In actual fact, the flag came from a ship docked nearby, and was raised in tribute from a flagpole sticking up from the rubble. Whether it's all true or not, it's still a fascinating... and touching... story.
"Oh, there are a lot of secrets buried within the tragedy."
"I miss the way that most Americans had more pride and we pulled together and dropped our things," a purple-haired girl named DragonChiq Thereian muses, as she stands there at his site. "It slowly faded as the days went by."
"Ah, such is the world," Gascoigne replies. "Americans are bound by tragedy but by little else. But I won't stop believing that there is still some good left in America. For all of the tragedies we've endured, all the hate that's arisen, all of the struggle... We still have our hope."
Gascoigne pauses, reflecting over his work. "It's strange how... striking...a lot of memorials can be. They try to reflect a part of the tragedy, and yet also try to capture the glory and essence, the HUMAN aspects, behind that tragedy. And certainly, memorials can even be rather... immaterial. Take these two towers of light-- I based them off the first-year anniversary tribute at Ground Zero. Two giant banks of light, shooting their beams high into the night skies. But... Somehow... This memorial doesn't seem complete... there's something missing."
"Debris?" DragonChiq Thereian suggests. "People helping one another?"
"No," says Gascoigne. "Something simpler, in a way."
"A whistle? Tags?"
"No," Skunken Gascoigne decides. "A rose. Ah yes." And he lays a rose on the top of the rubble.
* * *
The American chopper crewman pictured in Jason Delvecchio's 9/11 tribute had four days before his tour in Afghanistan was up. He was planning to have a bigger wedding ceremony when he got home, to make up for the rushed matrimony he had with his fiance, just before he shipped out. On that day, four days to homecoming, he flew his chopper to pick up two Afghan children with life-threatening injuries, and spirit them to life-saving medical treatment in Kandahar. Before he could reach them, however, a storm sent the chopper tumbling, and he perished in the crash.
“JH was a dear friend of mine and fellow serviceman," Delvecchio's tribute reads. "And I would do anything to have him back... but when the nation asked him for a favor... J was there.”
"I was his sponsor when he came to Iceland," Delvecchio tells me later, "my first assignment. That meant that I helped him get situated here... [We'd] go out to the bars, drink, drink, and drink. And work. Work was fun. Chased women, just did the young guy thing... We went camping and hiking a lot on the glaciers. That was fun. Used to play 'Dark Age of Camelot' in Iceland together... He liked working out, and playing softball on the squadron team. He loved the Air Force, and serving. He had a high image of his country and high morals when it came to that. He just believed in being a part of a whole that would protect this great nation..."
How you find out he died?
"A phone call... from buddies. 'Hey, did you hear about J?' I [already] knew, inside, when I heard we lost a Pavelow [chopper].
"I said, 'Yeah, I know, I had a feeling.'
"[I] swallowed deep, tried not to think, then got home that night and cried to my wife. There was [a service] in [the state] where he was based.
"I lit a candle and put it on my doorstep last night, and said a prayer."
What would you say to him now, if you could?
"Nothing... I'd just hug him.
"But if I could only talk, I'd say 'I'm so proud of you, and I would do anything to be in your shoes.'"
* * *
From a 9/11 prayer service on a rooftop in snowy Wolof, performed by Rusty Vindaloo:
"Quench now on earth the flames of strife," Rusty says. "From passion's heat preserve our life; and while you keep our body whole, pour healing peace upon our soul... I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth..."
While Vindaloo continues preaching, someone in the crowd sends me a discrete Instant Message.
"God bless America," he tells me without preamble. Then later, "I lost three co-workers. And had another who was there, but lived, basically became crippled mentally, because he ran and left the others behind."
"Behold," continues Vindaloo, "The Lord himself watched over you; the Lord is your shade at your right hand, so that the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; it is he who shall keep you safe..."
When he finishes the reading, he begins a recording which calls out the names of all the people who died that day. The gathered crowd at the service sits in silence, as the names continue across the screen.
... Luis Morales, 46, New York, N.Y.
John Moran, 43, Rockaway, N.Y.
John Christopher Moran, 38, Haslemere, Surrey, England
Kathleen Moran, 42, New York, N.Y.
Lindsay S. Morehouse, 24, New York, N.Y.
George Morell, 47, Mount. Kisco, N.Y.
Steven P. Morello, 52, Bayonne, N.J.
When the list is finished, Rusty Vindaloo looks up. "Lord, I ask that you watch over these people. That they may live amongst you in your great heaven." He returns to scripture.
"A reading from the Book of John:
"'Jesus wept.'
"Amen."
The prayer service continues, and when it's finished, someone I'll call Anne comes up to Rusty Vindaloo.
"Thank you again, Rusty," Anne says. "I lost an uncle in 9/11. You have made it good today. [He] worked maintenance in the tower." Anne hadn't planned to tell Vindaloo this, she tells me later, but her father-- who never cared for her being on the computer so much-- happened to be in the room, during the service for all the dead and the fallen, including his brother. And when he saw this service, he joined her, as much as possible, viewing the rest of the service from over her shoulder.
"My dad was watching too," she says, "and it brought tears to his eyes. And he wants me to thank you for this. Thank you again."
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