Community pays tribute during annual 9/11 ceremony
Sep. 11—Love and enjoy your family. Show respect to all people. Lend an ear to someone who needs to talk.
Those are just a few of Chris Faughnan's guide to the universe, as noted on a remembrance resting on a bouquet of flowers at the 9/11 Memorial in Broomfield on Sunday morning.
It has been 21 years since terrorists crashed commercial planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania. Faughnan, a Colorado native and bond broker who was working on the 104th floor in the north tower of the World Trade Center, was one of almost 3,000 people killed in the attack, which included 343 firefighters and 71 law enforcement officers.
On Sunday morning, the Broomfield community, including North Metro Fire Rescue and Broomfield Police Department personnel, gathered to reflect and remember those who perished but also to commend those who stepped forward in the aftermath.
"Today, let's not just reflect on the grief our country experienced in the days following the attack but the strength, the unity and the pride that swept our country," noted Broomfield Deputy Police Chief Roger Plunkett in his opening comments during Sunday's ceremony. "Let's think about the thousands of heroes who stepped forward and our military service members who stood up and continue to stand up for our freedom."
From the North Metro Fire honor guard raising the American flag to the ringing of the ceremonial bell three times each for each of the sites struck on Sept. 11, 2001, Sunday offered a moment to pause, heal and move forward.
"Coming out here is always a solemn event, but what goes through my mind is not only do we see so many people coming (out) that want to hold those memories of the lives we lost in their hearts and in their minds. They come here together to heal," said David Ramos, fire chief for North Metro Fire Rescue District.
And to reflect on an event that is, for some, hard to fathom it was more than two decades ago yet remains fresh in their mind as if it were yesterday.
"That, for me, seems incredible when I look back that 21 years have passed, yet it seems so recent because that was so significant," Ramos said. "I think the country's doing a good job, the world's doing a good job of remembering this day, sharing the stories, the memorials across the country. The incredible memorial in New York City. Those things I think continue to educate."
That includes educating a younger generation. This year's senior class, as Plunkett noted in his speech, will only know the events of that day through what they read, see on TV or hear from those who witnessed it.
"We've raised an entire generation who are relying on us to continue to share with them the story from that day that changed our nation forever," Plunkett said.
Westminster residents David and Allison Peduto were just kids themselves when 9/11 happened — David in middle school; Allison a third grader. Now parents, they attended Sunday's ceremony with their children — 2-year-old Molly and 6-month-old Leo.
"It's important that they understand that this was a lived experience. This wasn't just something that happened in some far-off place; this happened here and something that we personally experienced and personally affected us," David Peduto said. "Even though we didn't have a personal connection to the day, the attack was on our country. For them, I think it's really important that they understand that for all the craziness civilian division is today that we were united in the wake of that day."
And while, as Peduto noted, everything changed that fateful day 21 years ago, it's important not to forget the events as they unfolded. Furthermore, he said, today's children should understand the circumstances of 9/11, where we, as a society, are today and where we are headed in the future.
"Our children don't have the luxury of having that pause after an event anymore. Things are so fast after tragedy and after controversy," Allison Peduto added. "We had the luxury of taking a pause and having a day to be united and to heal and to grieve together and they don't have that."
Yet, for a brief moment Sunday morning, Broomfield and the country paused to reflect and remember once again.
