PHOTOS: Remembering Those Who Died on Sept. 11
The mayor and governor joined family members of 9/11 victims on Tuesday morning in commemoration ceremonies.
Photos
Eleven years ago, on a cloudless day much like today, Anna Sweeney's father told her that "mommy's plane was taken by bad guys and a lot of people went to heaven."
Anna's mother, Amy Sweeney of Acton, had been a flight attendant on Flight 11, the first plane to fly into the towers. She was one of 207 people from Massachusetts to die from the attacks. Anna, now a teenager, joined other families of victims Tuesday morning to honor the memory of those killed.
"It's hard to believe that that terrible trajedy was 11 years ago," Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo told the crowd inside the House chambers, where they were assembled for the presentation of the Madeline "Amy" Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery. "We think of Amy Sweeney, who stood up to what was unthinkable horror, to save lives," he said.
Sweeney had called a flight control center to tell them that Flight 11 had been hijacked.
Earlier in the day, Mayor Thomas Menino joined family members in the Public Garden to lay a wreath at the 9/11 memorial. Shortly after, Gov. Deval Patrick presided over the reading of the names of the dead on the steps of the State House.
The Sweeney award was given to Paul Antonino of Wakefield, who rushed into a burning building on Chelsea Street in April to alert residents of the fire.
Neil
1:25 pm on Tuesday, September 11, 2012
My friend was 39. She died in a helicopter flying over Tikrit in Iraq on a morale mission for the men and women who reported to her in the US Army JAG corps information technology division, It was November 2003. I learned of her death watching ABC news' ThisWeek. Her name scrolled by on the screen at the end of the show with the names of other American men and women who died, long before they should have.
Our government told us Iraq played a role in 9/11. It was one of the ways, albeit fraudulent, that government influenced public opinion to support the war they wanted to start Iraq. It would be a war started to preempt another war they told us, a preemptive war. This is how 9/11 and the Iraq war came to be inextricably connected. 9/11 was made to be the casis belli for the Iraq invasion. It was flimsy and contrived but it is was classified and could be manipulated. The fear of mushroom clouds being a smoking gun was the cherry -- the fear factor that pushed public opinion over the top. We trusted out government officials and marched to war.
With my friend that day were two young men from the 82nd airborne and two young men from the 101st. They died too. I regret all of the innocent people who died on 9/11 and in the Iraq War including Americans, people from all over the world who worked in the World Trade Towers and everyone who lost their life as a result of the US invasion of Iraq. May god have mercy on us.