Aurora police, fire and city officials on Friday called for unity in Aurora as they marked the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
The anniversary, said Aurora Police Officer Andrew Soderlund, is a reminder that public safety comes from working together, a lesson Police Chief Matt Thomas said is particularly important in a diverse city like Aurora.
“It does not mean we always agree,” Thomas said. “Only that our differences should not stop us from showing decency, offering help and standing together on what matters most.”
Aurora Mayor John Laesch and Kevin Nickel, Aurora’s interim fire chief, also encouraged unity during what they called a divisive time in the country’s history. Nickel remembered the six Aurora firefighters who traveled to New York City to assist with recovery after the attacks in 2001.
“At a time when our country feels deeply divided, perhaps one of the greatest ways we can honor those we lost is to remember how we responded,” Nickel said. “We stood together, and we helped one another, and we took care of our neighbors and 25 years later, we’re still capable of doing that.”
Nearly three dozen people, including some young children, and dozens of members of the fire and police departments gathered in the parking lot of the Aurora Police Department on Indian Trail Friday to honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost in the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the countless lives lost in the aftermath.
An American flag hung over the silent crowd as bell tolls marked the exact times the World Trade Center Towers were struck and a wreath was laid to honor the lives lost.
“A generation has grown up since that morning,” said Soderlund, just after the first bell rang, signifying when the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Also in attendance were state Rep. Matt Hanson, D-Montgomery, and Aurora Alds. Patty Smith, 8th Ward; Daniel Barreiro, 1st Ward; Schweta Baid, 10th Ward; and Edward Bugg, 9th Ward.
Nickel said he remembers the exact moment the second World Trade Center tower was struck, “and everything changed.” He said he had just started his career as a firefighter and watched the events unfold on a TV in a fire station kitchen alongside his superiors.
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He described feeling a sense of “overwhelming helplessness.”
“Just seeing the senior firefighters and their faces, that will always be ingrained in me,” he said. “We’re trained to go in and help, but we were 800 miles away.”
He said that helplessness turned into purpose, and his station started preparing for a possible attack in the Chicago area and eventually sent firefighters to help out in New York.
A quarter of a century later, he said the anniversary of 9/11 means remembering what public safety does on a daily basis – “going into danger when everybody else is running out.”
Smith said, like everyone else, she also remembers the exact moment of the attack, when she held her 5-year-old on her knee as a stay-at-home mother, not knowing if she should send her to school or not.
Smith said the 9/11 attacks impacted all of Aurora’s schools, leading to tightened security measures such as locked doors, identification requirements and more.
Years later, she said the daughter she held during the attacks barely remembers the moment, and a whole generation of high schoolers have no memory at all of the event.
“I’m not saddened they missed it, but I hope that they somehow, somewhere along their lifetime get the understanding of what happened to us because it can happen again,” she said.
Police, fire and city officials emphasized the importance of passing onto future generations the lessons learned from the attacks.
“May we continue to choose courage over fear, respect over contempt and shared purpose over division,” said Thomas. “That is how we honor those things. That is how future generations will understand.”
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