Tom Lenahan worked for American Express 24 years ago, one of about 4,000 employees at the corporate headquarters in and near the World Trade Center. Running late on September 11, Lenahan was directly below when United Airlines flight 175 hit the south tower at 9:03 that morning in 2001. Ducking under an overpass for cover, Lenahan sheltered briefly there with two others, trying unsuccessfully to get them to leave before that structure also collapsed. “I could have been on that wall,” Lenahan said during a ceremony in New Paltz, referring to the American “flag of remembrance” that has the names of the immediate victims of the 9/11 attacks written upon it, and is now mounted for permanent display as part of the memorial adjacent to the village firehouse.
Rabbi Moshe Plotkin spoke about memory, and how most college students today weren’t even alive during those terrorist attacks, which in addition to the World Trade Center also included a plane that was crashed on the Pentagon and another that was brought down by passengers over Pennsylvania before it could reach the hijackers’ intended target, which was likely in Washington, D.C. Modern college students “don’t remember the feelings of that morning,” Plotkin said. “There are no words to convey the enormity,” but per the Jewish tradition of speaking about events to reinforce memory, the rabbi believes it’s important to continue to try.
As the clock ticked to 8:46: and 9:03, when the New York buildings were struck, a ceremonial bell was rung in keeping with a ceremony to honor firefighters who died in the line of duty; 343 died trying to save lives in the aftermath of the attacks. Nearly 3,000 total died that day and, as Taylor Bruck —the acting county clerk — noted, “People are still dying,” including rescue workers who now live with cancer due to the toxic cloud that hung over the sight for days, and military veterans who were deployed in response. Butch Dener, who established the local memorial with the late Carmine Liberta, remembered the site of “ground zero” in the days immediately following the collapse of the towers, in particular the haze that lingered in the air.
The stories of those who lived through that day will surely continue to be told, at least by those for whom it is an act of healing. How subsequent generations remember the attacks will be judged by historians.
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