Queens remembers 9/11 victims

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards led a 20th anniversary 9/11 commemoration at Borough Hall on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021.  Eagle photo by Rachel Vick

By Jacob Kaye

The Queens community came together Thursday night to honor the nearly 300 Queens residents who died 20 years ago during the terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

With Queens Borough Hall lit up in blue lights, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards led the commemoration that featured remarks from a handful of first responders and local leaders.

Richards began the ceremony by noting the pain and trauma the borough has experienced in the past several weeks.

“It's been, let me just say, just a tough week in Queens,” Richards said. “When you think about the impact of Hurricane Ida on our residents, then you add on top of it the pandemic, and then tonight, to think about those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom 20 years later – let that sink in.”

“We want the families to know that they are forever in our memories, we will not forget them,” he added. “We owe them a great debt of gratitude for paying the ultimate sacrifice. We love you.”

The 232 Queens residents who died on 9/11 were among the 2,977 lives lost in New York City two decades ago. Not added in that count were the lives lost of the soldiers who fought in the ensuing wars that followed 9/11.

James McNaughton, a former police officer from Middle Village and member of the U.S. Army reserves, was the first NYPD member to die in the war in Iraq in 2005. In all, 34 service members from the World’s Borough died fighting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Nearly a third of all Americans were either not yet born or were younger than 10-years-old at the time of terror attacks, according to James Hendon, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Veterans Services.

It’s for that reason, that commemorations like the one at Borough Hall last week are so important, he said.

“It's incumbent on us to continue to tell the story of what happened that day in Shanksville, in the Pentagon, and the North Tower in the South Tower,” Hendon said. “It's so important for us to come together, not just on the 20th anniversary, but every time possible to just grieve as a community, not just as a family, not just as friends, but all together, as we continue to just live on with what has happened.”

In addition to educating those who were not around or don’t remember, Henderson said it’s also still important to grieve and remember the victims ourselves.

“There's such a continuum of this,” he added. “To educate is to speak to the mind, to grieve is to speak to the heart, to remember is to speak to the soul.”

Mentioned throughout the night was the unmistakable similarity between the tragedies of 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both have resulted in mass grief throughout the city, but both also brought people together, State Sen. John Liu said.

“Twenty years later, we remember the horror, but I also want to remind people, we remember the incredible goodness that came out of every New Yorker, every American, in the aftermath of that terror,” Liu said. “Now, we're starting to see the light at the end of this very long, dark COVID tunnel, which, again, is another attack on the world, but it started right here in New York.”

“We’re recovering from that as well – our resiliency, our resolve is never abated,” he added. “I think that's the important message.”

Additional reporting by Rachel Vick