Londonderry, Governor Remember 9/11

According to Governor Chris Sununu, the terror attack on Sept. 11, 2001 was one of two life-altering events that have happened in the United States during the last century, the other being the attack on Pearl Harbor. These two attacks “changed the fabric of our world,” which is why they are still remembered today.

To commemorate the 16th anniversary of the attack on America, a remembrance ceremony was held in front of the Londonderry Central Fire Station at 8:30 a.m on Monday morning. Governor Sununu gave remarks, as did the heads of the Londonderry Fire Department, Police Department, and the Town of Londonderry, recalling one of the reasons America is a great country: the sacrifice men and women in uniform often make to preserve the freedom our democracy is built upon.

After the National Anthem was sung by Alexa Caligandes, Chaplain Ron Anstey, a part-time Fire Investigator and Chief of Engineering Services with the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office, gave a prayer. Before he began, Anstey outlined the number of those in uniform that were lost on that September day in 2001: 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York Police Officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Officers.

“Men and women in uniforms, they did not run from the conflagration, they ran toward the conflagration,” Police Chief William Hart echoed when it was his turn to speak.

Hart spoke of the fear that drove the attacks, how the group of men that “murdered thousands of people” did so because of their fear and their contempt for the freedom America represents. In Hart’s words, it is the men and women in uniform that we need to support for all they do in this country.

“Talk is cheap. We need to support them with our actions; we need to support them with our hearts,” he said.

Fire Department Chief Darren O’Brien, who has been a first responder since the age of 18, spoke about the commitment the men and women in uniform have to serving the people of this country “even though we cannot always change the course of an event.”

Firefighter Bruce Hallowell commemorated the memory of 9/11.

“Yesterday, today, and every day we remember.” He said he and those in uniform continue to honor, reflect, and remember those who sacrificed their lives on that day, and are more vigilant today than they were 16 years ago.

Before Town Manager Smith spoke, Jennine Landry sang an original song she wrote after the events on 9/11. The small crowd listened intently, sitting and standing beneath the American Flag flown at half-mast. Some of her lyrics were haunting, leaving the memory of that day and the effects of it fresh in the mind of those in attendance: “How does a broken heart go on when their loved ones now are gone.”

A total of 2,996 people lost their lives that day, but the reverberations of the event are still felt today. 20 percent of the United States’ population knows someone who died or was affected by the terror attack, according to New York Magazine.

Smith spoke briefly after the song, before handing over the microphone to Governor Sununu. He explained that he felt one day out of a year for remembering those in uniform was not enough. if there’s one good thing about 9/11, he said, it “gives us a chance to pause and thank the men and women who don the uniforms” and “leaves no doubt when you put on that uniform in the morning, you are truly doing God’s work here on Earth.”

Sununu agreed with Smith that this day, and those who constantly protect the members of this country, should be commemorated more often because they represent what we stand for “what freedom really is” and “the length we will go to defend that freedom.”

“Keep up the good work,” he said to those in attendance who wore their uniforms. “We can never say thank you enough. We can never do enough.”