On 11 September 2001 — a date that falls at the height of the US presidential election period every four years — four hijacked planes killed nearly 3,000 people.
The US marked 23 years since the 11 September terror attacks, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the coordinated hijack of four passenger jets.
Three planes purposely crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City and the Pentagon, while the fourth struck a field in Pennsylvania after a struggle between the hijackers and the people on board.
The anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center brought Harris and Trump, the Democratic and Republican nominees, face-to-face just hours after their first-ever debate Tuesday night.
US President Joe Biden — also in attendance in New York — and Harris are set to attend similar events in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, while Trump will visit the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville in Pennsylvania.
However, politics wasn’t top-of-mind for victims’ relatives such as Cathy Naughton, who came to honour her cousin Michael Roberts, one of the hundreds of firefighters killed.
Twenty-three years later, “it’s just so raw,” she said. “We want to make sure people remember always, and say the names always and never forget.”
“Every year, it just doesn’t get easier,” she added.
The attacks by 19 men — most of them Saudi Arabian — killed 2,977 people and left thousands of bereaved relatives and scarred survivors. The planes carved a gash in the Pentagon, the US military headquarters, where an American flag was unfurled at dawn Wednesday in tribute.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that while it may seem that many Americans don’t observe 9/11 anniversaries anymore, “the men and women of the Department of Defence remember.”
The day that altered the course of history
The 9/11 attacks have left a scar on US history, leaving thousands of bereaved relatives and traumatised survivors.
They also altered US foreign policy and domestic security practices and shifted the mindset of many Americans who had not previously felt vulnerable to attacks by foreign extremists.
Effects rippled around the world and through generations as the US responded by leading a “Global War on Terrorism,” which included invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those operations killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis and thousands of American troops, while Afghanistan became the site of the US’ longest war.
Since 2001, communities around the country have engaged in remembrance of 9/11, laying wreaths, displaying flags and holding marches. Volunteer projects also mark the anniversary, named by the Congress as Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance.
During the first several anniversaries, presidents and other officials read poems, parts of the Declaration of Independence and other texts at New York’s Ground Zero.
That ended in 2012 after the National 11 September Memorial and Museum decided 2012 to limit the ceremony to relatives reading victims’ names.
Victims’ family members occasionally send their own political messages at the ceremony, where readers generally make brief remarks after finishing their assigned set of names.
Some relatives have used the forum to criticise domestic divisions, encourage leaders to prioritise national security, acknowledge the casualties of the war on terror, complain that officials are politicising 9/11 and even criticize individual officeholders. Others appealed for peace.
“It’s my prayer that this wicked act called terrorism will never occur again,” said Jacob Afuakwah, the brother of victim Emmanuel Akwasi Afuakwah, a restaurant worker.
But most readers stick to tributes and personal reflections. Increasingly, they come from children and young adults who were born after the attacks killed a relative they never had a chance to meet.
