Marking Sept. 11 - Philadelphia Daily News

Source: Philadelphia Daily News
By: Jenice Armstrong

I USED TO have a friend who'd hold dinners in her home each year on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

It sounds odd, but we'd huddle in her dining room over a bottle of wine and potluck dishes and talk in low tones about that horrific day and puzzle over what it all meant. Since we were all single, it was good to have a place to gather other than our empty apartments.

Six years later, time has a way of numbing even the most acute of aches. But I've often thought about those comforting evenings as I've heard about other ways people commemorate one of the most horrific days in this nation's history.

For most of us - 71 percent, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll - it's the single biggest news event of our lifetime. But according to the same survey, only 6 percent planned any formal observances yesterday.

"It's amazing how so many people have paid less and less attention to remembering this day. It's really unfortunate even here in N.Y.C. where so much happened on that day," said Robert Tuchman, of TSE Sports & Entertainment, who remembered the day by running to Ground Zero instead of taking his usual route in Central Park.

Meanwhile, you hear of people such as Philly's own David Sylvester, who embarked on a cross-country bicycle odyssey following the death of his friend Kevin Bowser in the World Trade Center. And you hear of folks such as Kaitlin Uhlrich, a human-resources manager at the Park Hyatt in Center City, who, along with several colleagues, took it upon herself yesterday to distribute cards and trays of cookies to local police and firefighters.