”We Have To Remember’
For the young boys of Cub Scout Pack 1162 of Carmichaels, the events being marked are a part of history. Evan Gomez, 7, was born on Jan. 10 of that year, so the reasons that brought him to the town square on Thursday are something he learns about in his elementary history class.
But, for his brother Christian Gomez, 10, it is a day that – even though he was three years old at the time – he said he recalls quite vividly.
“Thousands of people died. I watched [it] on TV with my mom,” Christian said. “I have seen it on the Discovery Channel too and have watched the planes crash into the towers.”
Nine-year-old Jed Sullivan of Pack 1162 chimed in that he also remembered when the planes crashed into the towers.
It is for these boys, and the younger scouts like seven-year-old Jeremy Eperjesi, that Cub Scout Leader Amy Gomez brings the pack to the ceremony in Carmichaels each year.
“We have scheduled this every year and we are the only scouting group that comes,” Gomez said. “I think it is important and we are going to remember those who died that day.”
That was what ceremonies like this one, held each year all around the United States, are all about: Rememberance.
The irony of the 9/11 personnel sounding the sirens at the time of the first attack on that fateful day was not lost on the citizens present whose eyes welled up with tears. In fact, the words “nine one one” or “nine eleven” have become as synonymous with the date of this tragic event in our history as they are with the number that one calls to summon the police, fire and EMS workers who lay their lives on the line each day.
In recognition of the emergency services personnel who sacrificed their lives on that day and every day in service of others, Craig Bailey, president of the Carmichaels/Cumberland Volunteer Fire Company, and Mike Gyurke, Carmichaels Borough police officer, remembered their fallen comrades in readings.
“I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me. To guard my every neighbor and protect his property,” Bailey read from the Fireman’s Prayer. “And if, according to my fate, I am to lose my life; Please bless with your protecting hand, my children and my wife.
“These words stand out and are a dedication to the past, present and future firemen,” Bailey continued.
He continued by reminding the audience of the number of lives that were claimed on that Tuesday in September 2001.
“There were 2,973 lives lost and 429 of those were rescue workers…firemen, police and EMS workers.
“Most were not scheduled to work that day at the towers or the Pentagon or on Flight 93 but as in the Firemen’s Prayer, they were called to duty, just like the servicemen and women have been called to duty.
“We must never forget the dedication of the men and women called to defend our country as a result of these attacks,” he said.
Bailey asked the audience to leave with three words: “Lest we forget.”
“If you leave here with nothing else, remember where we have come from, where we are today and where we look to be in the future,” he said.
Following Bailey’s words, Officer Gyurke shared an excerpt from the poem, “Tears of a Cop.”
“I have been where you fear to be. I have seen what you fear to see. I have done what you fear to do. All these things I’ve done for you,” read Gyurke. “And through the years I’ve come to see, that I am not what you ask of me. So take this badge and take this gun. Will you take it? Will anyone? And when you watch a person die, and hear a battered baby cry…then so you think that you can be all those things you ask of me?”
Hair stylist Debbie Maraney, the owner of Shear Expressions, said she steps out of her shop each year to share in the remembrance held at the Carmichaels town square.
“I will never forget it. I was standing here watching TV and doing hair that day and it was like a terrible accident… but it wasn’t an accident,” she said. “I didn’t get to stay as long this year, I was there for the gun salute to the victims…The experience just comes back, the feelings and the emotions.
“I am so glad that they do this [service] to remember,” she concluded. “We have to remember the reason that they [the emergency services personnel] gave up their lives and everything they had to save people. It is still just unbelievable.”