US commemorates 9/11 attacks with victims in focus, but politics in view

NEW YORK — The United States remembers the lives taken and reshaped by 9/11marking an anniversary that is intertwined with the politics of the presidential campaign this year.

September 11, the day in 2001 when nearly 3,000 people were killed in hijacked airliner attacks, falls every four years in the middle of the presidential election season, and this time comes at a particularly poignant time.

Fresh from their very first debate Tuesday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris And former president donald trump are both expected to attend the 9/11 memorial service at the World Trade Center in New York and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

At the time, senators and rivals in the presidential campaign John McCain And Barack Obama made a visible effort to put politics aside at the 2008 commemoration. They visited Ground Zero together to pay their respects and lay flowers in a reflecting pool near what was then a well.

It is not yet clear whether Harris and Trump will ever cross paths. If they do, it would be an extraordinary meeting during a somber ceremony just hours after they met on the debate stage.

Regardless of the campaign calendar, organizers of anniversary ceremonies have long taken pains to keep the focus on victims. For years, politicians were mere spectators at Ground Zero commemorations, with the microphone going instead to family members who read the names of victims aloud.

“You’re with people who are sad, who are proud, who are sad — what the day is all about and what those loved ones meant to you. It’s not political,” said Melissa Tarasiewicz, who lost her father, New York City firefighter Allan Tarasiewicz.

President Joe Bidenon the last September 11 of his term and likely of his half-century political career, will join Harris at ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, the three sites where commercial airliners crashed after al-Qaeda members took over on September 11, 2001.

Officials later concluded that the plane that crashed near rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, was en route to Washington. It went down after crew members and passengers tried to take control from the hijackers.

The attacks killed 2,977 people and left thousands of survivors and scars. The planes tore a hole through the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters, and brought down the trade center’s Twin Towers, among the world’s tallest buildings.

The disaster also changed U.S. foreign policy, domestic security practices, and the mindset of many Americans who previously did not feel vulnerable to attacks from foreign extremists.

The effects were felt around the world and across generations as the US responded by leading a “ Global War on Terrorismincluding invasions of Afghanistan and IraqThose operations killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis, and thousands of American troops, and Afghanistan became the scene of the longest war of the united states.

As the complex legacy of 9/11 continues to unfold, communities across the country have developed commemorative traditions that range from wreath-laying to flag displays, from marches to police radio announcements. Community service projects also mark the anniversary, which Congress has designated both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

At Ground Zero, presidents and other officials read poems, portions of the Declaration of Independence, and other texts during the first commemorations.

But that ended after the National Sept 11 Memorial and Museum decided in 2012 to limit the ceremony to family members who read names of victims. Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg was chairman of the board at the time and still is.

Politicians and candidates were still able to attend the event. Many did, especially New Yorkers who held office at the time of the attacks, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was a U.S. senator at the time.

She and Trump met at the 2016 9/11 memorial, which became a charged chapter in the narrative history of that year’s presidential campaign.

Clinton, then the Democratic presidential candidate, abruptly left the ceremonytripped while waiting for her motorcade and later revealed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia a few days earlier. The episode brought new attention to her health, which Trump had doubted for months.

Of course, relatives of victims occasionally send their own political messages to the ceremony, with readers typically making brief comments after the names are read out.

Some family members have used the forum to complaining about the division of Americanscalling on leaders to prioritize national security, recognize the victims of the war on terror, complain that officials are politicizing 9/11 and even criticize individual office bearers.

But most readers stick to tributes and personal reflections. Increasingly, they come from children and young adults who born after the attacks murdered a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle.

“Even though I never met you, I feel like I’ve known you forever,” Annabella Sanchez said last year of her grandfather, Edward Joseph Papa. “We will always remember you and honor you, every day.

“We love you, Grandpa Eddie.”