Remembering 9/11 – 23 years later
It’s been 23 years since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. Here are some ways to honor and remember.
Massachusetts 9/11 Fund Events
The Massachusetts 9/11 Fund will honor victims who died at the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and in a field in rural Pennsylvania via a mix of pre-recorded and in-person events. You can watch starting at 8:30am on the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund website here.
Massachusetts Fallen Firefighter Memorial 9/11 Ceremony
9/11 Remembrance at Mass Fallen Heroes Memorial
Join Mass Fall Heroes for a Vigil in honor of 9/11 at the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes Memorial in the Seaport located at 85 Northern Ave, Boston, MA at 6:00pm on September 11th. There will be lighting of candles to honor all of our brave servicemen and women who gave their lives during the horrific events of 9/11, as well as those who paid the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation in the following conflicts. You can learn more here.
Give Blood
Join the American Red Cross, Boston Red Sox & Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for the Day of Remembrance Blood Drive at Fenway Park, 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. You can get the details here. All presenting donors can enjoy a cup of Legal Sea Foods chowder, a discounted tour of Fenway, and check out World Series trophies. Download the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org and use sponsor code: Fenway or call 1-800-RED CROSS to make an appointment. You can learn more here.
Be Kind
Whether it’s a simple simple to a stranger or thanking a first responder, remember to be open your heart and be kind. Here are some suggestions of good deeds to do on 9/11 to inspire you!
Here are some more ideas of acts of kindness!
Maureen Dahill is the editor of Caught in Southie and a lifelong resident of South Boston sometimes mistaken for a yuppie. Co-host of Caught Up, storyteller, lover of red wine and binge watching TV series. Mrs. Peter G. Follow her @MaureenCaught.
First, they did not GIVE their lives, their lives were TAKEN.
9/11 wasn’t an accident .
The young people need to research very deep to learn what really happened on that day, and it seems some adults should do the same.
September 11th, 2001 was a horribly freaky day, with horrific events. I still remember being at home, hearing about the 9/11/2001 collapsing of NYC’s Twin Towers, and thinking that it was a hoax, until I saw it on TV, and knew differently. It was rather scary. On the following Saturday, I and an old friend who’d moved to Brookline, NH, with her husband and children, was supposed to go into Boston for lunch, and to the Museum of Fine Arts. She called me to beg off, but after some discussion, when I managed to persuade her to come along, my old friend, her oldest daughter, and I met downtown at the Boston Common, went to the Museum of Fine Arts, had lunch in the North End, walked around for awhile, and then, after a joyous afternoon, we all went home.
Less than a month later, on Columbus Day weekend, on Saturday, October 6th, I left my then-living pet Noble Macaw, McGee, in the hands of a next door neighbor, asking her to change McGee’s drinking water and to cover his cage that evening, I drove down to the Big Apple, from Somerville, at 6:45 in the morning. I stayed at my cousin’s condo on NYC’s Upper West Side. After my cousin and I walked around for awhile on a lovely day, I took a cab down to Riverside Drive, where my old friends lived (They’d lived in Boston, but moved down to NYC.), and we went to Radio City Music Hall. A wonderfully spectacular and beautiful print of the old, original 1961 film version of West Side Story (which is my all time favorite movie, hands down!) was shown at Radio City Music Hall, and there was much applause and finger-snapping at the end of each song. What a great time I, my old friends, and everybody else had that night, seeing such a beautiful film on its 40th Anniversary! Equally fantastic was the fact that less than a month after the freaky events of 9/11/2001, five or six thousand people managed to get together for such a spectacularly wonderful evening. So, having said all of the above, that was what September 11th meant to me, and still does. I still have fond memories of that Columbus Day weekend of 2001.
I did not mean to underestimate the horrors of 9.11.2001. It was no accident, and lives were indeed taken, viciously. It was horrifically freaky day.