By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Personal stories abounded at the 9/11 remembrance ceremony Friday night at the Woods Road firehouse.
Among the 100 or so people seated in the audience at the fire company’s memorial garden, was Dave Barry, brother of Port Authority policeman Maurice Barry, who died in the rescue efforts following a hijacked jetliner being deliberately flown into World Trade Center towers in September 2001.
The memorial plaza’s centerpiece is a mounted piece of steel from one of those Manhattan landmarks.
Mr. Barry said his brother went into the towers as a rescuer twice that fateful day. The second time, his brother didn’t come out, he said, and was one of 49 Port Authority officers to perish that day.
Dave Barry said he had attended several larger 9/11 ceremonies over the years, and met presidents Bush and Obama, but this year accepted the invitation of Dan Dix, a fulltime Hillsborough Rescue Squad member who is his future son-in-law.
Firefighter Timothy Coyle Jr., one of the organizers of the program, spoke about a questioner who asked why the planned program was going to read all 400-plus names of emergency responders who died that day. There were so many names, the person said.
“That’s exactly why we read them all,” Mr. Coyle said he responded.
Mr. Coyle sent the audience on its way by telling them that Sept. 11 was the birthday of his mother, Madeline, but that after the 2001 attacks she never wanted to celebrate the day again.
Fire company chief Christian Fulmino thanked all who came out.
“‘Never forget” is not just something you say,” Mr. Fulmino said, “but something you prove with an action.”
Congressman Leonard Lance came directly from Washington, D.C., where that day he had cast “one of the most significant votes of my tenure” against the proposed Iran nuclear deal.
Mr. Lance referred to a stanza of “America the Beautiful” that says “thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.”
That was not true today, he said.
“Human tears are still shed based upon what happened on 9/11 and alabaster cities gleam not as brightly based upon the horrific acts of the terrorists,” he said.
He said he had requested that a U.S. flag be flown over the Capitol building today, and the flag would be given to the Woods Road company when he receives it.
Somerset County Freeholder Mark Caliguire recalled how the country was as united as he could ever remember, and urged the country to grow together again as it still fought the ongoing war against terror.
Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli urged that the day be used as one of national teaching — about destructiveness, hatred and the beauty and power of diversity.
