Remembrance at sunrise on the beach

Eight years ago to the day, hundreds of people had gathered at Lido Beach Park and watched the clear, sunny sky in the distance fill with black clouds of dark smoke from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Last Friday, Sept. 11, hundreds once again gathered at that beach — including the victims’ families, firefighters, police officers, EMTs and first responders from Point Lookout and Lido Beach to New York City. Under a large tent, they took cover from gusty sheets of rain that dampened the solemn day of remembrance.

“The terrorists of Sept. 11 demonstrated their contempt for freedom,” Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray said at the annual 9/11 Sunrise Memorial ceremony, which began at 7:30 a.m. “Our family members, coworkers, colleagues and loved ones paid for our freedoms with their lives at the World Trade Center ... Today, we all owe them a debt of gratitude, as they have bolstered patriotism, inspired a quest for justice and advanced the cause of freedom across our land.”

Murray was among the speakers who once again not only remembered and honored those who were killed on 9/11, but provided words of encouragement and hope to their fellow Americans.

“[The terrorists] failed to capture our soul because their faith was in reality a mask for evil,” Murray said, before noting that new construction and a 9/11 memorial were coming along in Lower Manhattan.

Calling the pain of losing loved ones in the attacks “immeasurable,” Kenneth Haskell, an FDNY member, talked about the heroic efforts of his two brothers, Timothy, a firefighter with Rescue Squad 18, and Thomas, a captain of Ladder 132, who were both killed while trying to rescue others at the twin towers.

Timothy Haskell and a fellow firefighter came across a man in a staircase who they believed was having a heart attack. All three men made it to the tower’s lobby, but once outside the building began to collapse.