America and Michigan marks the sixth Anniversary of 9/11

HOWELL - Ceremonies, memorials and events marking the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon yesterday.

The ceremonies were held in every town, city, hamlet and burg across the nation. It was marked nationally in Washington, D.C. where the President held a moment of silence and General Peter Pace spoke at the wall of the Pentagon where the hijacked airliner crashed into; in New York City relatives of those who died in the World Trade Center and on the two hijacked airplanes gathered at Ground Zero in New York to honor their lost loved ones; in Michigan the Governor ordered the flags in the state flown at half-mast and a moment of silence and locally in Livingston County a pair of ceremonies were held. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox spoke at American Legion Post 141 and the third consecutive year the Livingston County Teen Age Republicans (TAR) organized a ceremony of the lawn of the Historic Livingston County Courthouse in downtown Howell.

The TAR event honored the military, local firefighters, police, EMS personal and the 3,000 people who lost their lives on that historic day. The crowd was much smaller than in the past, especially in comparison to the event held on Sept. 12, 2001 on the day after the attack when the huge crowds lined the sidewalk and overflowed into Grand River Avenue.

“Hank you for coming out showing your support,” said Staff Sgt. Jamison Yager. “It has been six years, and the flags and bumper stickers have begun to disappear.

“Remember, freedom isn’t free,” he said.

But some 100 people braved the chilly, windy weather to participate in the event.

“We are cold tonight, but I have heard you have not been cold until you have spent a night in Afghanistan,” said Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Howell, a Colonel in the National Guard. “You have not been hot until you have worn full body armor in Iraq.”

However, the 9/11 event has conflicted many people. They want to show their patriotism and honor the sacrifice of those that died in the attack, as well as the people in the Armed Forces, but they also feel 9/11 has been used as a political tool to get the U.S. into the Iraq war that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack, as well as it being used as an a tool to restrict civil liberties and circumvent the U.S. Constitution. Frank Grundman is one who feels the same way, and he is suspicious that political parties have grabbed onto the event to bolster support for the Iraq situation, although he said that was pretty much absent in this event than in past ones.

“I guess it just bothers me that an event that brought the country together like nothing I have ever seen in my lifetime has been used to justify something that has driven a huge wedge between people in this country,” he said.