{"id":10696,"date":"2020-09-12T04:59:52","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T11:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10696"},"modified":"2020-09-12T05:01:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T12:01:03","slug":"new-york-city-marks-911-at-a-time-of-harrowing-loss-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10696","title":{"rendered":"“New York City Marks 9\/11 at a Time of Harrowing Loss”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Gold, September 11, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n

As they memorialize a past tragedy, New Yorkers face another profound and deadly crisis that is not yet over.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The mourners entering the plaza wore face masks, and the teary, intimate hugs of years past were replaced by awkwardly choreographed fist bumps. When the bells tolled at 8:46 a.m., marking the moment the first jet smashed into the north tower 19 years ago, those gathered stood at somber attention, trying to draw comfort from neighbors required to stand six feet apart.<\/p>\n

The solemn ceremonies held at and near the Sept. 11 memorial in Lower Manhattan on Friday provided a poignant resonance in the face of a pandemic that has crippled the country for months and brought particularly devastating loss to New York City.<\/p>\n

Outside the memorial plaza, a widow holding a picture of her husband admitted that the anxiety she normally felt on this anniversary was compounded by her fears over the coronavirus. A woman who lost her cousin when the Twin Towers fell equated the dedication of rescue workers in 2001 with the toil of health care professionals this year.<\/p>\n

A retired firefighter said the lingering effects of the virus made him think of the continued ailments suffered by emergency workers who inhaled toxic dust, smoke and fumes at the site of the attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Even the notable politicians who attended, including Vice President Mike Pence and Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic candidate for president, made concessions to the current threat. They, too, wore masks, gave no speeches and distanced themselves as they stood among the crowd.<\/p>\n

It has been 19 years since passenger jets hijacked by terrorists slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa. Nearly 3,000 lives were lost, some 2,700 of them in New York, in the deadliest attack in the country\u2019s history, a blow to America\u2019s psyche.<\/p>\n

Now, the United States confronts a far deadlier calamity. During the pandemic, the United States has exceeded the death toll of Sept. 11, 2001, by orders of magnitude<\/a>. In New York City alone, more than 23,000 people have died of the virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In both tragedies, the eyes of the nation turned to New York, looking to see how a city brought to its knees would stagger back to recovery.<\/p>\n

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A photo of Nereida De Jesus, who was killed in the South Tower of the World Trade enter, was left at the 9\/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan on Friday.\u00a0<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Todd Heisler\/The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s two of the most traumatic things that have ever happened to New York City, and it\u2019s probably changed it forever,\u201d said Diane Massaroli, whose husband, Michael, was killed in the World Trade Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just have to find a different way to live now,\u201d she said, her hands clutching a bouquet of roses and an old wedding photograph. \u201cLike I had to find a different way to live then.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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