New York City on the 9/11 25th Anniversary

0:00The Pat Kenney Show on News Talk. Now, if you were watching TV at all yesterday, you could not but be aware that solemn memorial events were being held in New York to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. Our multimedia reporter Emily Kagan has been in New York all week, speaking to people impacted by the events of the 11th of September 2001. Emily, good morning. Good morning, Paz. Now, what was it like being there during this anniversary? Yeah, it was very strange. I have to say I think if I wasn't here with the sole intention of covering the 9-11 anniversary, if you were just a standard tourist walking through the streets of New York and if you weren't around ground zero, I'm not sure you'd even really know that it was the week of the anniversary. I was quite surprised to find that the anniversary almost got lost in New York. Of course, this is one of the biggest cities in the world. If you were just walking down Times Square any day other than yesterday, it would be very easy to forget the week that we're in.

1:01It kind of just seemed to blend into everything. But there was a lot going on. A lot of it up until yesterday was happening behind closed doors. You would catch glimpses of it as you were walking around like the odd billboard would show a first responder who would lost their life, an image of them coming up. But other than that, it was kind of you had to seek it out. I of course was seeking it out. As I said, there were a number of events throughout the week. And when I arrived at any of those, it immediately reminded me why I was there. And how much hurt is still being felt by people in America and of course across the world from these attacks. People have of course been traveling to the city all week from across the country because many of them would have left New York after the events. And they've come back to attend the anniversary commemorations and many of them of course are family members of victims, survivors and first responders to the scene that day. And being here and also watching the news coverage, I think it's quite easy to forget that it wasn't just the planes crashing into the twin towers that happened that day,

2:02but nearly 3,000 people died and many of those were also at the Pentagon and on board flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. And I caught up with Craig Lukey who is a retired left hand in from Fairfax, a county fire and rescue department. And he actually was one of the responders to the scene at the Pentagon that day. I was working that day and the TV was on. We saw that one of the towers was on fire. We didn't know what would happen. And then we happened to see though the plane go win. And so we all medically started pack up to go to New York. And then the plane hit the Pentagon, which is right down the street from where we were. So then we diverted and went and helped the Arlington County Fire Department. One thing that I do remember was everyone was trying to come out of Washington DC and we're the only thing going in. And everybody looking at us as we're driving towards the Pentagon, they're petrified. You can just see it in their eyes. And once you arrive there, the FBI and everybody is trying to pick up pieces of the plane to make room for us to go in. And there was fire was still burning, burned, burned for like three or four days. I'm born and raised in the Washington DC area and to see the Pentagon being struck like that.

3:05It being a hometown person that was very unreal. And what was it like for the people that you work with? I imagine this is something that you're still dealing with today. It was quite a traumatic event. It is traumatic. And when you ever have something that scale with that many people involved in that may fatalities, it's very moving. Furthermore, you know what's going on up in New York. And because we're a brotherhood sisterhood in the fire department, I actually ended up knowing some of the people that were in the towers. This year's scale of everything just took a long time to just understand what's going on. We were there for about 14 days and in order to take care of the recovery and get to the black boxes of the aircraft, you had to shore up the building because it was falling down. So a lot of the work that we had to do was trying to clear it out so they could find the evidence and also keep the building from falling further down. How does it feel every year when this anniversary rolls around for you? I do remember a while ago I ended up being on an airplane to take a flight and it happened to me on 9-11 day.

4:06It didn't realize it to me sitting in my seat. And then it was weird feeling. It's like a little bit of panic thing. It's like just calm down. It's just it's weird how it can affect you but it doesn't come back out unless there's like a trigger or something to bring it out. Because I think us in public safety, we have a good way of compartmentalizing everything. But if there's a little trigger that brings us like then the memory comes back. But I think the brain wants to keep it away. And that's Craig Luky, a retired lieutenant from Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. So Emily, what kind of events were actually taking place throughout the city yesterday? Yes, of course the major one that everyone will know and anyone would have seen on the TV yesterday is the private family event which takes place at ground zero. The site where the twin towers once stood here in New York and the names of the nearly 3000 people that died were read aloud. And there were also seven moments of silence for those who've died during. And since the attacks, there was a new seventh moment actually added this year for the nearly or the more than in fact 9000 people who've died as a result of 9-11 related illness since those attacks.

5:09And the fact that the event is private doesn't actually stop people from turning up to stand outside and pay their respects from there. So there were thousands of people gathering all day. And again, when the gates to the memorial opened for public access. And it was a really emotional scene down there. There was, I don't think there was a dry eye in the area once 846 AM rolled around the time that the first tower was struck. And then of course across the city, there were also people marking it at Times Square. There was a moment of silence at 11 minutes past 9 and all the billboards actually went black and showed that time of 9-11. And then it continued throughout the day. There was, as I said, thousands of people going to that memorial. But at night, we of course had two beams of light which shone up to evoke the memory of where the towers once stood down in lower Manhattan. And many of the main buildings that people will be familiar with in New York actually lit up blue and to throughout the night as well. And that was from Dusk until dawn here in New York. And across the country as well, there was major buildings in Manu cities who decided to shine blue to pay tribute to those people who died.

6:10There also been many, of course, charity events all week and wreathless ceremonies and masses and so on. But one very close to ground zero, which was open to the public was the ringing of the bell of hope at St Paul's Chapel. And people might recognize that name because this chapel became a refuge for the first responders in the months following the attack. And at that event, I sat down with Lisa Benenson from Trinity Church who told me more about the chapel story. We are just a hundred yards from where the towers originally stood and from the moment the first tower went down, everyone was sure that this chapel would burn. And it stood here since 1766, always a place of comfort for this neighborhood. And we were terrified, but these sickamortries have back famously saved it. And of course, in the days immediately after the towers fell, we opened the doors to first responders.

7:12And this just became this incredible place of rest and recovery and remembrance for nine months after we kept it open to the first responders. And they were burning through shoes every day on the pile and companies donated boots so they could come here for fresh clothing and a new pair of boots to get a hot meal and to shower. I've read some of the letters from school children inside the chapel. I mean, how many of those were coming in? And it seems like the whole country was new, where to say into the hope that these first responders really needed. Yeah, thousands, thousands of letters. We've saved a selection which you've seen inside and they're just extraordinary. You know, we were getting, there's a big poster inside from, that came from Oklahoma, first responders, police, firefighters and so on there. You know, a huge portrait of support from them. You know, I think people had to have some place to put that emotion and say Paul sort of became that.

8:14And you know, really, we have done this service every year from the first responders, Rihon. And I think that this is a moment to come and find not only a place to remember and to mourn, but also a place to hope. That's Lisa Benenson. At this year's official memorial event, Emily, was surrounded by a bit of political controversy calls for a New York City Mayor, Zoran Mamdani to stay away from the event. Now, was that a topic of discussion on the ground? Yeah, absolutely. And of course, we already know that it's a very divisive time here in the US under the current administration. But I had no idea really how obvious that would be until I was standing there and there was countless arguments between people on the sidewalk. You actually crowds were gathering around people who were in really heated debates about whether or not, Mayor Mamdani should be at this event because more than 100,000 people who all claimed to be families of the victims of the attacks. And of course, there's no way of actually confirming that they are or not, but they've signed a petition calling for the mayor not to attend the ceremony. And among the people actually calling from stay away was former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor at the time of the attack.

9:21And of course, there's a bit of tension between them this week because Mamdani's office has released more than 170,000 previously hidden papers revealing that the city knew that there was toxic air in the area of ground zero when first responders were at the scene. And the city was telling them essentially that there wasn't and Mamdani has pretty much accused Rudy Giuliani of lying to the city. So it was interesting to see if they if they would speak to one another and Mamdani did attend and he was seen shaking hands with Giuliani. And then he later told reporters that they exchanged pleasantries but wouldn't elaborate on what that meant. But as I said, there was a lot of people there who didn't want the mayor there and when I tried to get an answer out of people on the ground, but why there wasn't really a clear answer. And it seemed to me that it all came back to the fact that he is a Muslim and this is a thing there's a lot of Islamophobia around these attacks of course. And the final person to actually read a name allowed at the ceremony Michael Maseroli Jr. who read out his father name, his father's name actually called out Islamophobia following that and said that he's been he spent his spend his whole life seeing people use the tragedy to hate on his Muslim brothers and sisters.

10:25And this is all part of a bigger issue of Islamophobia and the Muslim community in New York and the world. Of course, the media became a focus for many people who are afraid following these attacks. So I sat down with Mohammed Moaz who's president of the FDNY Islamic Society and he was 12 when 9-11 happened and says a lot changed from Muslims after that. You know, I remember pre 9-11 was having such an amazing childhood. I knew why it was. I knew I was, you know, from a young age I knew that I was a Muslim. There was no question about it. My parents raised me Muslim. I've been fasting for Ramadan since I was seven years old and I knew my religion to be something beautiful and something peaceful. And almost immediately after 9-11, I grew up having to defend what that was. I grew up having to defend what it meant to be Muslim. I never worried for myself. Like I always think I was a pretty tough kid in New York has a way to make you tough know what I wanted it or not. But growing older, I did worry for my nieces and my nephews. Mostly my nieces who decided to wear the hijab pretty young. I worried about my mom or my older parents.

11:33It's 25 years on from the tragedy now. Have things gotten better? Have they gotten worse? Have they stayed the same? How do you view things now? There are times when it's better and then there are times when it's worse and a lot of it has to do with kind of what the narrative is at the time that's being pushed. I think there's without a doubt we're in a better place than where we were. The more that they tried to talk poorly about Muslims, I think the more it made people kind of curious. You know, at the very least it's kind of like no-your-enemy right? And I think when people decided to look into Islam more, they saw that none of that had anything to do with what we were about. Just as a New Yorker, as a general New Yorker, how does it feel to be in New York this week 25 years on from the attacks? It's sad, you know, like when you started asking me in the very beginning about life pre-9-11 and post-9-11, I almost got a little bit emotional because New York City has always been my home.

12:33And one of the biggest issues that as Muslims, we went straight into a defensive moment because almost instantly we were being attacked that we didn't even get a chance to agree about our city, that we love and our home, that we love and the people that we lost, we never had that opportunity. And that's Muhammad Moaz. So, Emily, the mayor did attend, but there was another major political figure who did not present Donald Trump. He chose to stay in Washington and mark the anniversary at the Pentagon, and of course now is in Ireland. How do the people of New York feel about that? Yeah, that was a very interesting one. I think a lot of people in New York weren't aware. They were aware, of course, that he wasn't there, but they weren't aware that part of the reason possibly that he chose not to go is because he needed to make a quick getaway to Ireland to attend the Irish Open. And as I said, like again, things are very divisive right now in the US and there were a lot of mixed opinions of Trump at grounds zero yesterday. New York is situated in a blue state, but there are a lot of people who would have a particular view about these attacks and would have had a particular response to it and have political views that they've shaped as a result of that.

13:39And politicians who do attend this event only do so really as a sign of respect and they aren't given an opportunity to address the crowd. So Trump's presence wouldn't have made a huge difference, but money still would have liked to have seen him there. And he had made it clear that he wasn't going to attend that vice president J.D. Vance would be there in his place. So I spoke to some of the people at ground zero and asked them what they thought of the president not being there. And if they even knew he was coming to Ireland to watch golf hours later. I think that like he's a narcissist who is upset about the fact that he wasn't allowed to speak at the memorial, but you know J.D. Vance is here. So I guess that's somewhat of a good showing for the administration, but I think you know Trump's going to do whatever he can to make himself be in the limelight and he knew not being here would get attention. You might not be where he's actually going to be getting onto Air Force 1 tonight and flying to Ireland because his golf course is hosting a competition that he wants to attend. How do you view that that he's going to watch golf but he won't be here? I've actually got a list on my phone of every single thing that I've disagreed with him doing. And I think it's just you know it's just one more thing that like most people will forget about tomorrow.

14:45But it's a laundry list of just disrespectful narcissistic self-centered disgusting things that he has done and he has amplified. I know he was invited because all living presidents are invited all but it has been a tradition here since the beginning that politicians do not speak at this event. And I think that is the right thing to do. It strikes me as petty and totally in character with the man that we know he is and the man that New Yorkers have known him to be for decades. He's a petty selfish, vanglorious man. I'm glad he's not here personally because it would become about him if he were here but it's still disrespectful. Don't know what people do what they do. At least he has representation here. It can be everywhere. Only God could be everywhere. But it would have been nice for him to be here to be honest for the 25th especially since he's a New Yorker himself. But yeah I don't hold on to the account but I'm not like disappointed. And the golf I find it weird that he's you know the day after that he wants to do that but again the guy is getting older and I don't know.

15:54So I use it is what it is. You know it is what it is. Emily thank you very much for that brilliant reporting from New York. Now some of the comments coming in it was very odd indeed to see all the former presidents of the United States who are living lined up for the memorial while President Trump was on Air Force 1 on Rutwirl and to watch golf. Sometimes you have to wonder if President Trump really sees himself as president or does he feel afraid and so feels that he cannot stand beside these real presidents who went before him. And I just hope nobody tells Donald Trump that the Irish name for Dune Beg actually means small fort. Surely a man who owns only the biggest and best things cannot possibly lower his standards to own a property on merely a small fort. I assume it will be on the market immediately if he finds out that's according to Sean. The Pat Kenny show Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. on News Talk conversation that counts.