9/11 Terrorist Attacks After Twenty Years: “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning”

One World Trade Center, Lower Manhattan New York City, USA

"The Man Who Walked Between The Towers," A picture book written by Mordicai Gerstein, c 2003. It recounts the heart-stopping achievement of Philippe Petit, a French man who, on an August morning in 1974, walked, lay, knelt and danced on a tightrope wire between the roofs of the twin towers.

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oday may we take a minute of silence as we remember that fateful September morning twenty years ago on September 11, 2001 when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in Lower Manhattan New York City saw the last sunrise. Back in 2016 I went to the so called Ground Zero to remember in prayer and to pay my respects to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks—some 2,996 men, women and children including 19 al-Qaeda terrorists—that occurred in three areas, viz. WTC at the Financial District of Lower Manhattan New York City, Pentagon—the headquarters of the American military—Arlington County Virginia and Pennsylvania countryside outside Shanksville, PA. A series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks was executed by militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda. It resulted into the earth-shaking and deadliest terrorist attacks on American soil in US history. There is a quote emblazoned on a mural mosaic at the Memorial Hall, which sits between the two main exhibitions of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. It is from the ancient Roman poet Virgil and it says, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” Each letter on the mural was forged by artist Tom Joyce from steel that was recovered from the World Trade Center. I took a picture of the blue horizon as I gazed through the window on the 100th floor of the rebuilt World Trade Center aka the One World Trade Center. It is reminiscent of the final morning view on earth that was etched in the memory of those who perished. Spencer Finch, the artist of the mosaic, made use of 2,983 hand-painted, watercolor squares—each its own shade of blue which represents each of the life that had been lost. Finch entitled his mosaic work as “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning.” When interviewed about the artwork by The New York Times, he said, “It had to be about that human quality of remembering, how it’s so fuzzy in some ways, and in other ways it’s so completely clear.” In the words of Pope Francis he said during his State Visit back in September 25, 2015, "This place of death became a place of life, too... A place of saved lives, a hymn to the triumph of life over the prophets of destruction and death, to goodness over evil, to reconciliation and unity over hatred and division." The Holy Father said that the site stands as a "heroic example" of strength, generosity and service by citing firefighters who rushed into the burning towers with no concern for their own well-being (Source: Translation provided by the Vatican).

Sunset at the One World Trade Center

The "Footprints" of the former Twin Towers of the Financial District 

Pope Francis prays for the victims at Ground Zero during his US State Visit September 2015

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he very heart of the Memorial are two pools that represent the chambers and valves of the human heart. Each spans nearly an acre in size, that sit in the footprints of the former North and South Towers—the largest manmade pools in North America. Water continuously fall from a height of 30 feet into an inner square basin. From there, the water in each pool drops another 20 feet and disappears into a smaller, central void. According to the architect, Michael Arad, the pools represent “absence made visible.” Fr JM Manzano SJ

Recommended Read: "How Sept. 11 inadvertently paved the way for the future election of Pope Francis" by Christopher White

Ground Zero South Pool

Me and Fr Vic Salanga SJ