9/11 Commemorations
Anniversary Marked By Praise and Pain

By ARI PAUL

Amid intermittent rain from gray skies, city officials, workers, and mourners assembled in lower Manhattan Sept. 11 to remember those who died in the World Trade Center attacks.

The Chief-Leader/Eric Weiss IT DOESN'T GET EASIER: Attendees at the 9/11 memorial ceremony in Zuccotti Park console each other as tribute is paid to the nearly 3,000 victims - including more than 400 public employees - of the World Trade Center attacks six years ago.

The events started at Zuccotti Park near the WTC site at 8:30 that morning. Moments of silence were held to mark the times at which the Twin Towers were hit and fell. Family members of those killed were allowed to descend into Ground Zero to pay their respects.

'Strength and Resilience'

Past and current city and state officials, many of them active cops and firefighters, read the names of those who died. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani paid tribute to the "uncompromising strength and resilience ... an unending line of those who came forward to try to help one another" on 9/11 and in the days that followed.

His being permitted to speak had sparked anger among some relatives of dead firefighters who said Mr. Giuliani had shortchanged the department and was responsible for the firefighters lacking adequate radios during 9/11.

"He should stay silent like the radios stayed silent," said Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose Firefighter son Jimmy died on 9/11.

While some families had planned to turn their backs when Mr. Giuliani came up to speak, Chief Riches, who appears in an International Association of Fire Fighters video blasting Mr. Giuliani's 9/11 record, said he would not, preferring that politics not intrude on the ceremony.

At St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, one block north of Ground Zero, a memorial service was held later that afternoon for the 84 Port Authority workers, 36 of them Police Officers, who died on 9/11. There, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Spitzer and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine honored the heroism workers like them showed during the attacks.

'Didn't Plan to Be Heroes'

"They were regular men and women who went to work that day and never intended to become those that we honor here today," Mayor Bloomberg said. "But when the moment came, their true nature was revealed to all of us. The years may pass but their sudden passage still feels so fresh and so unjust."

Governor Corzine spoke of Port Authority Police Officer John P. Skala of Passaic, N.J., who was stationed inside the Lincoln Tunnel when he heard the news about the first plane hitting the North Tower.

"Without being ordered to action and without hesitation, Officer Skala and 10 others rushed downtown," Governor Corzine said. "He was one of those heroes who, as they say, ran in when others rushed out. Skala knew that he was an EMS professional and saved lives and he was dedicated to doing so. That's the way he was."

The body of 31-year-old Officer Skala was never recovered.

"The sacrifice these men and women demonstrated is without measure," Governor Corzine said.

In his speech, Governor Spitzer asked that mourners look towards the future as well as remembering the tragedy. He vowed that the World Trade Center site would soon be a vibrant center for commerce and a major transportation hub, in addition to a memorial to those who died on 9/11.

"Your suffering is our suffering," he said. "And it will always be so."