The images and fallout from the attacks on 9/11 are seared into the memories of those who witnessed the horrors. But those memories, like the relentless march of time, are logged by fewer and fewer people. What one person of a certain age can recall in excruciating detail is clearly beyond the scope of even someone in their early 20s who knows about what happened that day but in the same way they know that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
It is a good thing then that Pine Bluff observes what happened that day during ceremonies that are heavy with the pronouncements of the need not to forget any of it — not the slow motion dissolve of the World Trade Center towers, the destruction at the Pentagon or the organic heroics on Flight 93 that stopped further carnage, and not the fact that our country was attacked in a way will forever define the pain that came to our shores that day but also the resolve that the country mustered in the face of the tragedy.
Most of the anniversaries since 2001 have been left to the Pine Bluff Fire Department, which has a special bond with the many firefighters in New York that went into those burning buildings, never to return. The local firefighters have always stopped, gathered around the American flags in front of their fire stations and had a moment of silence, followed by the reading of the Firefighters Prayer. Simple and quick but meaningful and necessary.
Now, the observance has spread to the city’s Memorial Garden across the street from the Civic Center. One year, a young girl read a piece that had moved her. This year, it was the commander of the Pine Bluff Arsenal, Col. Collin Keenan, who offered remarks. Police, firefighters and elected officials show up. Members of the high school Junior ROTC present the colors. There are patriotic songs sung. The Pledge of Allegiance is recited as hats come off and hands are placed on hearts. There are now even some student scholarships that have their roots in the memorial observance.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
And even though the tragedy took place far from Pine Bluff, one of our own was one of the almost 3,000 who lost their lives that day. Petty Officer Nehamon Lyons IV, a 1989 graduate of Dollarway High School, had served on a warship but then was transferred to the Pentagon in 2001 where he was killed during the attack. There is a marker in the Memorial Garden that was placed there to honor his service and memory.
At some point, there won’t be anyone around who remembers that day, but observances like the one in Pine Bluff will serve as constant reminders to coming generations that our country is not beyond being attacked and that we are not beyond rising collectively as a nation above those attacks.