Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, New York’s Ground Zero memorial once again became a stage for grief rather than politics. Six bells tolled to mark the moments the towers were struck and fell, while former presidents and mayors looked on in silence. Under the ceremony’s rules, elected officials aren’t permitted to speak—so it was relatives of the 2,753 people killed that day who gave voice to the occasion, reading each name aloud in alphabetical pairs.
Between names, family members added personal notes: some broke down in tears, others offered prayers or patriotic words. A few turned pointedly political. Terry Strada, whose husband died in the attacks, renewed longstanding demands that Washington release more information about Saudi Arabia’s alleged ties to the plot, accusing the US government of shielding an ally. The final speaker, Mike Massaroli, whose father died in the towers, urged Americans not to let the day “foment hatred” against Muslim neighbors—a nod to controversy over Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, attending the ceremony despite objections from figures like former mayor Rudy Giuliani.
President Trump skipped the New York event, insisting it wasn’t about Mamdani, and instead led a separate ceremony at the Pentagon, where he framed the anniversary as proof of America’s resilience and used the moment to defend his administration’s military decisions.
Read the full report at jornada.com.mx.
Source: 11-S, 25 aniversario: ceremonia en NY da voz a familiares de los 2 mil 753 muertos a pesar de los políticos (jornada.com.mx). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: David McSpadden, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).