9/11 Vigil: We Will Never Forget

Members of Malta's VFW Post 4067 led a candlelight vigil on Saturday, September 11, 2021, marking the 20 year anniversary of the largest attack on American soil.

In that one attack almost 3,000 people were killed. 2,606 in the World Trade Center and surrounding area, 265 on the four planes, and 125 at the Pentagon. Of those that perished, most were civilians, except for 343 members of the NYC Fire Department, 72 Law Enforcement Officers, and 55 military personnel at the Pentagon.

The group walked from the VFW to Veterans Memorial Park holding small battery operated candles in specially decorated paper bags and placed them around the memorials in the park.

At the park, Kari Green Hould read a poem that she had wrote:

I STOOD IN SILENCE

I stood in silence.

They said the planes came from nowhere.

Bringing death and destruction as they flew through the air.

There in the silence.

Our hearts poured out tears,

These memories and visions would last through the years.

I stood in silence.

As clouds of smoke filled the sky,

Wondering who could do this, and wondering why.

There came a silence.

And sadness filled our heart,

Everyone who was able came to do their part.

I stood in silence.

For there was little I could do,

Across the miles I prayed...

America, I love you.

I stood in silence.

As flames claimed them one by one,

Families were lost – mother, father, son.

We felt the silence.

As we gathered our families around,

The Twin Towers lay in rubble on the ground.

I stood in silence.

As the planes numbered two, then three,

What was happening to America,

The land of the free?

Hands were joined in silence.

It was time we took a stand,

Too many died to make this a free land.

I stood in silence.

Then joined others who gathered to pray,

This land is our land,

They can't take that away.

There in the silence.

As they raised Old Glory high,

Pride and love for our country

Could be found in every eye.

We're no longer silent.

We're renewed and filled with pride.

They can't break or destroy us,

Lord knows they tried.

9-11 is a memory, every one of us cried.

We came out stronger.

Never to forget those who died.