KALAMAZOO (WKZO AM/FM) — A solemn ceremony to remember the victims of 9-11 was held in Bronson Park Monday evening.
Speakers remembered the victims, some they knew personally, and recalled memories of what they were doing on September 11th, 2001.
New WMU President Ed Montgomery says he lived in Washington D.C. at the time and could see smoke rising from the Pentagon. He says next year’s freshman class at WMU will be too young to have any personal memories of 9-11, and that’s why it’s important that such commemorations be held.
To show them the painful wound that was inflicted on the country and our resolve to persevere.
They rang the fire bell for the fallen first responders, fired a 21-gun salute and played taps once again for the nearly three thousand who died that day.
The annual commemoration of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington included a story by Former Kellogg Executive George Franklin of the mission he was given a few days after 9-11 to deliver Mohammed Ali to Ground Zero in New York.
Ali, one of the World’s most famous men, a Muslim and an outspoken critic of violence, was living in Berrien Springs at the time. Having him meet with firefighters and rescue crews was symbolic of the fight against the terrorists.
He says days after the attack, the 13 story pile of twisted metal that greeted them was still smoking.
Franklin says he watched as people, even in their deepest grief would light up when Ali came into the room and come over and hug him, and how the Champ was willing to console everyone he came in contact with for hours.
He says they flew in and flew out the same day in the Kellogg corporate jet, calling the experience surreal, but one that made him proud to be an American.
