By David Cruz
NJ Today
Here in New Jersey, there were many memorials to mark the deaths of 746 state residents that day. Many of the services were in communities that lost family, friends and neighbors 11 years ago.
Sept. 11, 2001 was a day very much like today, crisp and sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky. Before too long, though, it turned the color of ash and dark smoke as the horror of the attacks in New York unfolded. Jersey City Fire Department Director Armando Roman was at the Jersey City waterfront 11 years ago. He said he comes every year because he wants to make sure that young people particularly remember.
“It’s a big part of our history,” he said. “It’s the first time we were invaded in such a big way, and I think these memorial ceremonies give us an opportunity to educate them, but by the same token, continue to remember those who perished in 9/11.”
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For those closest geographically to the horror and those who lost loved ones, the memories still resonate with a pungent pain and some lingering anger. Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, a Port Authority Commissioner in 2001, was planning for a meeting with a colleague in New York. That colleague would be dead within an hour.
“My memories haven’t changed,” she recalled. “They are as fresh now as they were 11 years ago when the events of 9/11 happened. They haven’t changed. You move on.”
This year, several towns in New Jersey moved or cancelled their events, and at the Jersey City event, there were many empty seats. In Bergen County, where the ceremony was brief and included the reading of the names of Bergen County’s dead, many in attendance were county employees. Sen. Robert Gordon says even those who weren’t there at the time have had their lives changed.
“We go through security and have to give ourselves an extra hour to get to the airport,” he noted. “I was at the Democratic convention just last week, and I was remembering that in 1992, I was able to walk on the floor with a camera and a big camera bag, and I couldn’t do that, none of us could do that today, because of the security concerns.”
Jersey City Mayor Jerremiah Healy has been speaking at these memorials since 2004. He told the audience it was important to remember the people and events from the recent past, but not to dwell.
“I think it’s even more important that we take care of today and take care of tomorrow,” he said. “We do the business of America. We move on with our lives. We continue to live.”
Each year, the Sept. 11 memorials get smaller in size, and this year is no exception. But as One World Trade Center rises above the Manhattan skyline, no one is saying they’re ready to forget. They all say, however, that they’re ready to move on.