Americans commemorated the lives lost during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Sunday, as they pledged to “never forget” the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.
Police officers attend a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial marking the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Sept. 11, 2022.
The loss still feels immediate to Bonita Mentis, who wore a necklace with a photo of her slain sister, Shevonne Mentis.
"It's been 21 years, but it's not 21 years for us. It seems like just yesterday," she said before reading victims' names at the World Trade Center to a crowd that included Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff. Mentis'
U.S. President Joe Biden (L) participates in a wreath-laying during an observance ceremony for the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
At the Pentagon, which also was targeted on 9/11, President Joe Biden vowed that the U.S. would continue working to root out terrorist plots and called on Americans to stand up for "the very democracy that guarantees the right to freedom that those terrorists on 9/11 sought to bury in the burning fire, smoke and ash." First lady Jill Biden spoke at the third attack site, a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
On Sept. 11, 2001, conspirators from the al-Qaida terrorist group seized control of jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles, hitting the trade center's twin towers and the Pentagon. The fourth plane was headed for Washington but crashed near Shanksville after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a ceremony marking the 21st anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S.
The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, reconfigured national security policy and spurred a U.S. "war on terror" worldwide. Sunday's observances came little more than a month after a U.S. drone strike killed a key al-Qaida figure who helped plot the 9/11 attacks, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Pierre Roldan, who lost his cousin Carlos Lillo, a paramedic, said "we had some form of justice" when a U.S. raid killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. "Now that al-Zawahri is gone, at least we're continuing to get that justice," Roldan said.The self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, still awaits a long-postponed military tribunal. An attorney for one of Mohammed's co-defendants this week confirmed ongoing negotiations toward a potential agreement to avoid a trial and impose lesser but still lengthy sentences.
An Honor Guard made up of Conroe police and fire personnel present the colors during a Sept. 11 Observance ceremony on the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, held at the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, in Conroe, Texas.
The Sept. 11 attacks stirred - for a time - a sense of national pride and unity for many, while also subjecting Muslim Americans to years of suspicion and bigotry and engendering debate over the balance between safety and civil liberties. In ways both subtle and plain, the aftermath of 9/11 ripples through American politics and public life to this day.
But like some other victims' relatives, Jay Saloman fears that Americans' consciousness of 9/11 is receding.
"It was a terrorist attack against our country that day. And theoretically, everybody should remember it and, you know, take precautions and watch out," said Saloman, who lost his brother, Wayne Saloman.
By tradition, no political figures speak at the ground zero ceremony. The observance centers, instead, on relatives reading aloud the names of the dead.
People visit the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, for an observance ceremony for the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Like a growing number of readers, firefighter Jimmy Riches' namesake nephew wasn't born yet when his relative died. But the boy took the podium to honor him.
"You're always in my heart. And I know you are watching over me," he said.
Nikita Shah wore a T-shirt that bore the de facto epigraph of the annual commemoration - "never forget" - and the name of her father, Jayesh Shah. She was 10 when he was killed.
The family later moved to Houston but often returns to New York for the anniversary to be "around people who kind of experienced the same type of grief and the same feelings after 9/11," said Shah.
U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a wreath-laying ceremony to pay his respects to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Readers often add personal remarks that form an alloy of American sentiments about Sept. 11 - grief, anger, toughness, appreciation for first responders and the military, appeals to patriotism, hopes for peace, occasional political barbs, and a poignant accounting of the graduations, weddings, births and daily lives that victims have missed. A few readers note recent events, this year ranging from the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic to Russia's war in Ukraine.
Some relatives also lament that a nation that came together - to some extent - after the attacks has since splintered apart. So much so that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which were reshaped to focus on international terrorism after 9/11, now see the threat of violent domestic extremism as equally urgent.
"It took a tragedy to unite us. It should not take another tragedy to unite us again," said Andrew Colabella, whose cousin, John DiGiovanni, died in the 1993 bombing World Trade Center bombing that presaged 9/11.
Flowers are visible on one of the benches at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial outside the Pentagon in Washington, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, during a ceremony to honor and remember the victims of the Sept.11 terrorist attack.
