Twenty-five years ago this morning, President George W. Bush was inside Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota when Chief of Staff Andrew Card told him a second plane had struck the World Trade Center. Minutes later, the president addressed the nation from that very school. It remains one of the most sobering connections any community has to September 11, 2001.
The attacks killed 2,977 people from 90 nations: 2,753 in New York, 184 at the Pentagon, and 40 aboard Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Friday’s national observance in Lower Manhattan begins at 8:30 a.m. with seven moments of silence and the reading of every victim’s name. The World Trade Center Health Program continues to treat first responders and survivors, a reminder that the toll of that day never really stopped growing.
Here on the Suncoast, the day is marked in our own way. Manatee County hosts its Tribute to Heroes at 9:30 a.m. at Rossi Park in Bradenton, and the Sarasota Orchestra performed a 9/11 benefit concert on September 10. For those too young to remember, or not yet born, this anniversary is history rather than memory. That’s exactly why we keep telling the story.
How will you mark the 25th anniversary today?
