Somerville residents of all ages joined members of the city’s police and fire departments at the 9/11 Memorial in Davis Square as the city commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Mayor Katjana Ballantyne joined Director of Veterans’ Services Jerome Thomas, Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven and City Councilor-at-Large Kristen Strezo to honor both victims and first responders.
A constituent crowd was accompanied by dozens of uniformed police officers and firefighters, who arrived to the music of bagpipe tunes.
“[On] this day each year, not only do we remember the destruction [of 9/11], but we come together as a nation to remember and honor the brave men and women, my brothers and sisters at arms, our first responders, and everyday citizens, next-door neighbors — all who selflessly sacrificed everything while serving our great nation and helping at Ground Zero,” Thomas said in his opening remarks.
Father Paul Coughlin of St. Raphael Church in Medford then gave an invocation and benediction, encouraging listeners to remember the families of victims and first responders and praying for the safe return of currently deployed military to their families.
and praying for the safe return of currently deployed military to their families.
“We ask you lord to pray and to watch over and to work for a world free from every form of hatred and violence and ignorance,” Coughlin said. “May terrorism in all of its forms disappear from the face of the earth. May the light of your peace touch the hearts of people everywhere that they may do your work on earth and provide care and healing for all who are in need.”
Following these prayers, a band played the national anthem as firefighters and police saluted their fallen comrades and the American flag over the Middlesex Savings Bank was lowered to half-mast.
Elisha Gechter, a Somerville resident, highlighted the immense loss of life on Sept. 11, not just as a result of the attacks, but also for people like her father, a volunteer citizen, who passed away from health issues caused by the toxic chemicals released on that day.
“It is equally important to remember that on this day, since 9/11, 4,323 people have died as a result of the toxic air that they breathed at Ground Zero when they showed up there,” Gechter said. “They showed up there as volunteers. They showed up there as first responders. They showed up there to return to the homes that they lived in. They showed up there to learn in the schools that they attended. None of them knew that doing so would cost them their lives.”
Still, Gechter remained hopeful.
“In response came an outpouring of love to take care of those who were experiencing loss and to take care of those who were responding to the loss,” she said.
Thomas then returned with a speech uniting residents around the shared values of courage, hope, service and community.
“We have community, of us all just stepping up and just reaching out to our neighbors, reaching out to those who we know have lost somebody, reaching out to those who we know was just hurting, reaching out to those who know somebody who was there, … just reaching out and just stepping up and showing what community really looks like here in our area,” he said.
Finally, Ballantyne delivered her remarks.
“Our journey of recovery is not over,” she stated. Ballantyne paid tribute to first responders, saying that their spirit is alive today in Somerville’s volunteerism, duty and empathy.
“We can honor them by living each day with purpose, by serving others with compassion and by standing together against fear and hatred in all its forms,” she said.
Ballantyne and Thomas laid a wreath on the memorial. Constituents young and old and numerous families came up to pay their respects, laying roses in a circle on top of the compass-shaped memorial.
After a moment of silence and a bugle playing “Taps,” Coughlin closed the ceremony with a final prayer: “May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”
