9/11: 10 Years: America Remembers

From yahoo News:

"A changed America: Marking 10 years since 9/11"

Relatives of the Sept. 11 dead gathered Sunday at a transformed ground zero, the centerpiece of a day of mourning and remembrance around the nation and world to mark 10 years since the worst terrorist attack on American soil. The relatives — some in solemn, black suits, others in fire department T-shirts — crowded into a space in front of a podium where President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush were to deliver readings as part of the New York ceremony. As the sun rose, an American flag fluttered over six stories of the rising 1 World Trade Center. The sky was clear blue with scattered white clouds and a light breeze, not unlike the Tuesday morning 10 years ago. The site looked utterly different than it had for any other Sept. 11 anniversary: Along with the names in bronze, there were two manmade waterfalls directly on the footprints of the towers, surrounded by dozens of white oak trees. Remembrances around the nation and world were planned to mark a decade of longing for loved ones lost in the attack. Of sending sons, daughters, fathers and mothers off to war in foreign lands. Of redefining what safety means and worrying about another 9/11 — or something even worse. The anniversary revived memories of a September morning when terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and a fourth plane crashed into a field in rural western Pennsylvania. Of heroism and Samaritans and unthinkable fear. And of nearly 3,000 killed at the hands of a global terror network led by Osama bin Laden, himself now dead. People across America planned to gather to pray at cathedrals in their greatest cities and to lay roses before fire stations in their smallest towns. Around the world, many others will do something similar because so much changed for them on that day, too. Bells will toll. Americans will see new memorials in lower Manhattan, rural Pennsylvania and elsewhere, symbols of a resolve to remember and rebuild. But much of the weight of this year's ceremonies lies in what will largely go unspoken. There's the anniversary's role in prompting Americans to consider how the attacks affected them and the larger world and the continuing struggle to understand 9/11's place in the lore of the nation. At the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial near the town of Shanksville, Bush and former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden joined the families of the 40 passengers and crew aboard the jet who fought back against their hijackers. The passengers and crew gave "the entire country an incalculable gift: They saved the Capitol from attack," an untold amount of lives and denied al-Qaida the symbolic victory of "smashing the center of American government," Clinton said. On Sunday, the focus turns to ceremonies at the Pentagon, just outside Washington, D.C., and in lower Manhattan for the dedication of the national Sept. 11 memorial. Obama planned to attend events at the sites and was to speak at a Sunday evening service at the Kennedy Center. The New York ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m., with a moment of silence 16 minutes later — coinciding with the exact time when the first tower of the trade center was struck by a hijacked jet. And then, one by one, the reading of the names of the 2,977 killed on Sept. 11 — in New York, at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania. And so arrives a Sunday dedicated to remembrance, with hundreds of ceremonies across the country and around the globe — from a memorial Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York to a ceremony featuring nine-stories-tall replicas of the twin towers on a plaza in Paris. But some of the most powerful ceremonies will likely be the smallest and most personal.

^ Today is the 10th anniversary and for many - including myself - it feels just like it did in 2001. Everywhere you look (the TV, Internet, newspapers, etc) they show the same footage over and over again just like 10 years ago. It isn't enough that we had to watch it live back then and then over and over again for weeks after. We all know what happened on 9/11 and all saw the pictures. While I completely agree that we should never forget all those killed or those that personally went through the attacks I think we can do so without the constant footage of the attacks. I visited the Pentagon and the World Trade Center before the attacks and went to Ground Zero afterwards. I would like to go back when the Memorial and Museum are completed. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/changed-america-marking-10-years-since-9-11-223049008.html