New York City Makes Plans for 9/11 Anniversary

New York, NY —

New York's Mayor and Governor have struggled to find a satisfying schedule of events this September 11th. It will include special access to the site for victims' family members and an evening of live music and candle light vigils in many of the city's parks. Something for ALMOST everyone WNYC's Marianne McCune reports.

It's no easy task to memorialize an event that struck so many people in so many different ways. Before announcing his plans, Mayor Bloomberg said he aimed to meet the following demands:

Bloomberg: To plan an observance that recalls the enormous tragedy of that terrible day, that pays tribute to heroism and sacrifice of those we lost, and that also evokes spirit and community that new Yorkers have shown since 9-11.

A tall order. The day will begin with 5 pipe and drum bands marching from each of the five boroughs to meet at the World Trade Center site. It will include a moment of silence and the recitation of all the names of those killed in the September 11th attacks. And after a statewide tolling of bells - by as many places of worship as choose to participate - the families of those lost will be allowed to walk down to the ground where many of their relatives bodies remain. Christie Ferer is the city's liaison to the families.

Ferer: And it's just incredibly meaningful that they've set aside this entire morning for the families to interact at Ground Zero.

For those in search more of guidance and inspiration than ways to mourn and remember, there will be words. But they will not be the words of our mayor or governor - rather those of some of the men who've shaped this country: New York Governor Pataki will read Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, New Jersey Governor McGreevey will read parts of the Declaration of Independence, and at sunset, Mayor Bloomberg will read the Four Freedoms offered by Franklin Roosevelt in his state of the union speech just before World War II. Columbia University historian Eric Foner.

Foner: Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of fear, which certainly is quite relevant after September 11th, and the fourth, freedom of want.

Governor Pataki says these historic texts reflect times when the country's existence was not certain.

Pataki: We had an enormous almost loss of freedom and almost loss of the U.S. during course of the civil war and at a critical moment of that civil war, a great president gave an inspiring address as to what this country means and what that battlefield meant.

Sean Shillingford: Maybe some of those old speeches can give us some guidance.

Sean Shillingford is a car salesman in lower Manhattan. He likes the idea that these historic texts will be read.

Shillingford: If leaders of today don't have wisdom or they guidance then maybe they do need to go back and see what went down before and learned from what happened and how they can learn from what happened.

But that's exactly what bugs neighbor Jim Nastasi.

Nastasi: I'm curious to see what our current leaders have to say more than our historic ones.

The same thought occurred to Historian Eric Foner.

Foner: Who is going to be writing the next Gettysburg address?

Foner says he fears voice and passion have been lost from political life.

Foner: Lincoln wrote his own speeches. This is a guy who had one year of formal education. He didn't have his own speech writers. I don't think there's a politician today who could do that. In a way it's a revealing and possibly disturbing statement that we must go back to the past to find these uplifting statements of our values.

But Mayor Bloomberg says these texts speak of the continuity that is America.

Bloomberg: Everything that Lincoln talked about is still true today, we should remember and keep our vigil up.

Foner: My hope is that people will listen and mull over these docs not just take them as an occasion for flag waving or breast beating because they're challenges as well as affirmations. Have we lived up to the idea of equality? Have we achieved freedom from want.

When Abraham Lincoln dedicated the Gettysburg National Cemetery at the site of the Civil War's bloodiest battle, he said 'we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.' He was wrong about one thing. It turns out words also endure.

For WNYC, I'm Marianne McCune