Last pieces of 9/11 rubble reach memorials

For six years, Amy Passiak oversaw the distribution of hundreds of objects from the World Trade Center in New York, a task she finished days before the 15th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

There was only a knot of people on July 27, in a corner of the cargo area at New York’s Kennedy airport, to help with the end of the adventure.

The last pieces from the Twin Towers still stored in Hangar 17, which had been exposed to the view of thousands, left under Passiak’s watchful eye.

For six years, she coordinated the distribution of almost 2,800 pieces under the control of the site’s owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Among them, there was no individual, personal object: a damaged police car, sunglasses sold at one of the stores in the building, but mostly massive objects, fragments of the destroyed skyscrapers in lower Manhattan.

There was a lot of steel, including several of the tridents, the distinctive forked steel structures on the facade at the base of the buildings, each weighing several dozen tons.

In 2009, the Port Authority decided to distribute the objects to non-profit organizations and government entities for use in public memorial projects.

Already working at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Passiak was chosen to supervise the program.

Passiak, who is in her 30s and holds a master’s degree in museum studies, discovered a universe about which she knew almost nothing.

“I was a senior in high school in Michigan when 9/11 happened. I had never been to New York City,” she said.

Passiak had no close family connection to the victims of the attacks, or the police officers, firefighters and emergency personnel, nothing that could create a link, even an indirect one, with the attack.

“I didn’t have a real concept of what the World Trade Center was, where it was,” she added.

‘A lot of hugs’

Retrospectively, this distance perhaps allowed her to completely plunge into the task without feeling emotionally overwhelmed.

Since a little more than a year ago, the pace of the work has sharply slowed and Passiak is also handling other projects, but “for about four years, my life was September 11, which is crazy,” she said.


Generally, “I think that I’m a very emotionally steady person,” she said, “so I think that that actually helped with the job. I was able to remain calm.”

Passiak and the Port Authority approved the requests of 1,567 different groups across the United States, many of them fire and police departments, schools and cities.

Requests for objects also were approved for 10 foreign countries, including Canada, China, Germany and Italy. Despite its long ties with the US, France is missing from the list.

Each distribution was emotionally charged.

“I received a lot of hugs,” said Passiak, smiling.

“As the front person, you became part of that grieving process, almost like a pillar that they were able to identify and lean on.”

Passiak has now finished the project and said “it feels good” knowing that all the pieces went somewhere and the memorials were built.

“They weren’t giving it to individuals — they were giving it to groups of people that can process everything and interact together. That’s probably the element that I found most rewarding.”/rga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

New York's 9/11 museum to open to the public on May 21

NEW YORK - Nearly 13 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, a museum dedicated to the nearly 3,000 killed will open on May 21 where the World Trade Center once stood, officials said Monday.

"Sept. 11 is a day that profoundly changed New York and the nation," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. "The Memorial Museum will bring New Yorkers together in the same spirit of unity we showed after this senseless act of terror."

The opening of the National September 11 Memorial Museum has been repeatedly delayed by funding disputes, construction problems and damage from 2012's Superstorm Sandy. It will be preceded by a five-day period dedication period from May 15 to 20.

During the dedication period, only 9/11 victim families, survivors, rescue and recovery workers and active-duty first responders from the agencies which lost people in the attacks will be allowed in.

They will not pay a fee to visit the museum, but other visitors will be charged $24 for admission, said 9/11 Memorial spokesman Anthony Guido.

The museum will honor the victims and delve into the September 11th hijackings through artifacts retrieved from the wreckage, video testimonials and other historical items.

In the attacks, members of al Qaeda hijacked four airliners and crashed three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Passengers on the fourth plane overpowered the hijackers before they could crash it into their target, and the aircraft went down in a Pennsylvania field.

The museum is part of the wider National 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York's Financial District. The building's design evokes that of the twin towers brought down in the attacks. The memorial includes two pools set within the original footprints of the towers and bearing the names of those killed at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and aboard the aircraft.

The memorial complex is also dedicated to the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Remembering 9/11 with reflection, respect

Once again, the threshold of 9/11 is on us.

That date is such a grim reminder of what took place on September 11, a dozen years ago. More than 3,000 lives were lost that day. That date changed the world forever.

Terrorism was defined in the cruelest and the most inhumane way when it came to what attained worldwide notoriety as ‘9/11.’

How air travel since then has been direly affected is an everyday reminder: when passengers traveling by air are required by law to follow whatever measures must be observed join the daily scenes at airports.

On many an occasion, this writer is not the only one who hears how ‘inconvenient’ it is to fly; remembering the many inconveniences whose origins go back to that date when terrorism didn’t just rock New York City, but the rest of the world. After-shocks tell volumes where blackened-out areas still stand out.

Inevitably, the subject of 9/11 arises when friends and kin talk about what happened, told and retold to them by scenes on TV, not only on that day but each time air carriers accompanied the news.

Just to recall the scenes, how commercial airlines were flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon seemed far from real; the viewer would not err when she/he would think what she saw was on reel, a story on science. But those spectra did happen. They were real. Not reel.

The attack on the Pentagon caused the death of 184 people. Forty were killed on United Air Lines (UAL) Flight 93 in Pennsylvania when determined and dauntless passengers were able to prevent another building in Washington to be struck by their own plane piloted by terrorist hijackers.

Had those passengers failed in their plan of attack on the cockpit where terrorists had taken over flight control, who knows whether or not the Capitol or even the White House could have been spared.

It was still breakfast on the West Coast then. The phone rang incessantly. It was Jason, our grandson, a plebe at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland (class 2005) who was on the line. He assured us “all was well,” and not to worry about him. That was the ‘alert’ he gave. Then, he was off the line in just moments. No time for queries nor comments came from us, his family.

Later, we put two and two together. Their grounds, close to the Pentagon were identified by news reports as ‘that close’ to the terrorists’ target when that UAL flight came down.

One question that ensued that day and has morphed into more queries many a time thereafter: “Where were you when 9/11 took place?” That query almost parallels one such question: “Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated?”

What everyone was doing then doesn’t necessitate slow recollection. Numbers among us can recall what was going on in our lives when 9/11/2001 descended in untold destruction, not only in terms of lives and property, but the inner spirit as well.

A new definition of terrorism emerged.

Panic-stricken scenes ensued. There were pathetically narrated losses seen and heard. Of lives. Of morale. Of sole wage earners. Of budding careerists in their respective fields. Of brave men and women. Of public servants. Of medical teams rushing to save lives. Of how 9/11 became a tragedy of immeasurable proportions. Of nameless and unidentified heroes. Of attempts to scamper to safety from sky-high edifices whose facilities ceased working. Indeed, so many scenes unfolded that did appear over a long period of time on tape.

Remembering 9/11/2011 is today’s reality.

Oftentimes, the term ‘remembering’ takes on an affectionate connotation.

Returning to ‘9/11’ is replete in sadness as it comes to the fore. Yes, it is ‘remembering,’ to a boundless extent. Threats of terrorism cannot be shunted aside.

If only to recall the lessons learned, 9/11/2011 is one date to be together in quiet. Not in any form of celebration. Just respect. Just a few moments of remembrance meant to defer to those who unselfishly gave up their lives so more lives could be spared. — The FilAm

source: gmanetwork.com