9-11 Ceremony Honors Heroes, Freedom

"U.S.A." was emblazoned on the front and the back of the red baseball hat worn by Stanford Wright as he clutched an American flag in his right hand and held his left hand over his heart.

Wright was among a crowd of about 200 people who gathered at 7 a.m. Sunday to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and aboard the plane commandeered by passengers which crashed in a Pennsylvania farm field.

"God bless America," he said just after Highlands County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Campbell played "Amazing Grace" on his bagpipes.

"I will never forget all the people who lost their lives that day," Wright said, referring to the citizens who died, and the firefighters and police officers who gave their lives to save people in the horrific attacks in New York City and Washington.

Wright, who was born and raised in Jamaica and came to this country in 1979, hosted the 9-11 remembrance ceremony at his restaurant, The Heron's Restaurant and Lounge, in downtown Lake Placid, the fourth year in a row.

"I hope this never happens in our country again," he said.

Sponsored by the Lake Placid Chamber of Commerce, the 9-11 remembrance ceremony featured seven speakers, including Sheriff Susan Benton.

Benton said there was one clear reason why 19 suicide killers hijacked four airliners and gave their lives to kill Americans.

"These were folks who want to destroy our freedom," she said on the flat-bed truck stage, which had a banner across it reading "9-11 We Will Never Forget."

The terrorist attackers detest freedom, Benton said, and so they most detest the United States, because our country has the most freedom.

"Men and women in uniform," Benton said, referring to police and firefighters, EMS crews and all of our military personnel, "are protecting our freedom every day."

Benton said American citizens' "greatest freedom" is the right to vote, and that's a right that's been earned through struggles.

It wasn't until 1870 that black men - men only, she pointed out - received the right to vote in America, Benton said. And not until 1920, she added, could women vote.

Struggles to extend America's freedom continued, she said, and it was not until 1964 that, in every state, the vote was extended to people who rent but do not own land. Only landowners could vote in some states before that, she said.

And finally, Benton said, young people between the ages of 18 and 21 received the right to vote in 1971.

"Without voting," the sheriff said, "there is no assurance of freedom." She urged everybody honoring the fallen heroes of 9-11 to "stand up to the terrorists and stand up for our rights which they so much disdain."

Lake Placid Police Chief Phil Williams said every American will always remember where they were and how they reacted to the news that terrorists hijacked four airliners and knocked down the Twin Towers and crashed a plane into the Pentagon.

"It just tears your heart out, and gives you a moment you will remember the rest of your life," he said.

Most of all, Williams said, he will never forget "the 411 emergency responders who gave their lives trying to save people that day."

"There is a lot of good in our country," Williams said, and it was best exemplified by the firefighters and police officers who gave their lives trying to save others on Sept. 11, 2001 because they had the courage to risk their lives to save other Americans.

Roy Jones, an Air Force veteran, and his wife Elisa, stood at attention as Jonathan Soto, a member of ROTC at Lake Placid High School, played "Taps."

Holding an American flag in his left hand, Jones said he and Elisa came to the ceremony for one reason.

"Because we love our country," he said.