September 11th Rememberances
Lots of different things to see yesterday. Many people visiting St. Paul's Chapel, going to ground zero, and then heading over to one of the park services to see the lighting of the eternal flame, listen to some free music, etc. Below I post a few pictures I took downtown. Some show the WTC site; now not so remarkable for what you see, but what you don't see. I only have 1 shot of the pit where the towers stood, because there is really nothing there but a huge hole in the ground that serves as a mass grave for over 2,800 innocent people. I also have some photos of the fence around St. Paul's, which has become an unofficial memorial to those who died.
The World Trade Center Construction Site
The WTC "Wall of Heroes", commemorating those who died
Cross cut out of the structure of the WTC during the recovery efforts. As I have mentioned before, I am not a religious individual. However, this seems somewhat appropriate to me, since the majority of those who died in the WTC attack were probably Christian. A mass grave deserves some kind of headstone, don't you think?
People in front of St. Paul's Chapel, looking at the rememberances left on the fence surrounding the Churchyard.
Another view of the memorial
St. Paul's Chapel: This tiny church lived in the shadow of the towers. I remember looking down from the observation deck of the WTC, and seeing the tiny church graveyard far below. I am glad it survived the destruction. Some people have called its survival a miracle, and maybe it was. (sorry for the hand in frame, but I didn't have a lot of time to get the shot, and the sun was brutal)
This is my flag. I got it from a little VFW table to carry around, but then it seemed like I needed to add something. I'm sure thousands of these little flags have been left and removed over the past 12 months, but it was all I had to give, even if it's not a permanent fixture in the memorial.
Lots of flags from many different countries. I picked this photo because it shows Canada, the US, and England all together. I saw flags from Scotland, Brazil, Italy, and many other nations.
I picked this one because of the message on the sun-faded t-shirt, and the fact that my home state of Texas was represented.
There were lots of t-shirts and hats from military units at the St. Paul's Memorial. I picked this one and the one below because they had obviously been at the site for a very long time.
First to fight, first to strike.
Baton Rouge Police were here,
As were Calgary firefighters.
There were lots of homemade signs like this, remembering loved ones. Some were very sophisticated, and others were hand written and xeroxed. But regardless of the level of sophistication, they all attempted to describe feelings of loss. The "Amplify Love, Dissipate Hate" stickers were all added on 9/11/2002. I'm not sure what the meaning is supposed to be (Patricia Lucero stuck up hundreds of them, it seems), but I kind of resented having these little stickers applied to posters meant to remember people who died that day. If you want to make some kind of statement, then fine. But don't do it on someone's private rememberance of a loved one.
More of Patricia Lucero's work. Like I said, I'm not sure what message Patricia was supposed to deliver, but this seems a bit self-serving and creepy to me. Let's stick our little slogans on the pictures of dead people, and hope someone stops to read them.
People gathering on the "Great Lawn" in Central Park for the Sept. 11th rememberance.
Moon rise over the Great Lawn
A view of the stage set up for the Central Park concert.
Sorry for the high bandwidth useage, but I think the pictures tell a better story than I ever could.
3:13:55 PM 
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