A decade later - Fundação Luso-Americana

Three iconic sites
“On the 10th anniversary of September 11th , 2001, as the
nation reflected on its losses, thousands of families gathered
at the new World Trade Center rising in Lower Manhattan, at
the Pentagon, and on a field of wildflowers in Pennsylvania to
commemorate nearly 3,000 killed on that infamous morning
when jetliners were turned into missiles and a new age of
terrorism was born.
The day’s centerpiece unfolded at ground zero, where more
than 10,000 members of the victims’ families […], gathered in
a parklike setting of swamp white oaks and emerald lawns – a
strangely futuristic plaza with precisely spaced trees rising from
a five-acre granite floor, surrounded by a gouged wasteland of
unfinished skyscrapers and silent construction cranes.”
[ New York Times, September 11, Robert McFadden ]
The superpower
has run its course
“It’s hard to tell if the world changes in a split second or if
the great moments in history are merely the results of a long,
in-depth process that – for the most part – unfolds invisibly.
It is difficult to determine whether 9/11 transformed the United
States or if it was the catalyst for an inevitable decline that was
already underway. In any case, the last ten years have proved that
the US has run its course as a superpower. It is not only straining
to assure its lone position as the universal guardian of the
values it defends; but it is also losing ground in the contest with
other nations in this new era, which is no longer an exclusively
American century.”
[ el País, September 11, Antonio Caño ]
Acts of simplicity
and remembrance
“Simplicity, unity, and devotion. The 10th anniversary of the
September 11th attacks were marked by countless commemorations,
as the American people and their leader, Barack Obama, honored
the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in New York
City, Washington DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September
11th , 2001. […] The silence was surreal, as the workmen in the
morning ground their machines to a halt and the traffic was
blocked in downtown Manhattan. Barack Obama ran his fingers
across the names of the victims engraved in stone before greeting
the victims’ families and dignitaries. Then he took the lectern and
read Psalm 46 that states, ‘God is our refuge and strength.’”
[ Le Monde Monde (Agence France Press and Reuters), September 11 ]
9/11
A decade later
Tribute at Ground Zero
“The names of the Sept. 11 dead, some called out by children
barely old enough to remember their fallen mothers and
fathers, echoed across ground zero Sunday in a haunting but
hopeful tribute on the 10th anniversary of the terror attack.
[…]
Weeping relatives of the victims streamed into a newly-opened
memorial and placed pictures and flowers beside names etched
in bronze. Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, bowed
their heads and touched the inscriptions.”
[ Washington Post (Associated Press), September 12 ]
Ten years of war
“America grieves, reflects.[…] America paused Sunday to
remember what was lost and how it has changed forever a
decade after four hijacked jetliners felled New York City’s Twin
Towers, split open the Pentagon, and bore into the ground in
a quiet Pennsylvania meadow.
The anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks provided
a moment to take stock of 10 years of war and worry,
while at the same time paying tribute to honorable deeds performed
not only in the earliest moments of the attack, but in
the years since as well.”
[ The Wall Street Journal, September 12, Michael Howard Saul ]
The 9/11 Memorial
“Some people wept. Some embraced. Others silently stared into
the dark pools where the Twin Towers once stood as the 9/11
Memorial at Ground Zero opened its gates to the public.
About 7,000 people had tickets to visit the Memorial as it debuted
on Monday, and another 400,000 have signed up online to
visit in the coming months.”
[ Chicago Tribune (Associated Press), September 13, Samantha
Gross and Verena Dobnick ]
Parallel no. 6 | FALL | WINTER 2011 7
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