By JOSEPH KELLARD
³If we open up a newspaper, turn on the radio or television, or find ourselves among a group of people, September 11th is almost always a topic, and as a result, our feelings of loss are almost constant,² said Marino as her husband, Pat, stood beside her at the Oceanside Interfaith Council's 9/11 Living Memorial at Schoolhouse Green on Foxhurst Road last Sunday.
Flanked by some 30 members of the Oceanside Fire Department lined up in uniform and the OIC¹s clergy members, who gave brief speeches and prayers before about 100-plus attendees, Marino, the keynote speaker, touched on topics from Ken¹s lifelong passion for firefighting to the fate of ground zero.
Ken¹s boyhood dream while growing up on Weidner Avenue, near Frank Street, in Oceanside eventually led him to join Rescue One Company, the elite FDNY unit that was the first to respond to the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks five years ago. His mother emphasized the special bravery of people like Ken, who run into burning buildings to save lives when everyone else is running out in horror.
³Without their dedication, training and strength,² Mary Ann said, ³thousands more would have perished. This is something that we as Americans should never forget.²
Since 9/11, the OIC, an organization comprising a range of houses of worship, has been the only group in Oceanside to host a sizable annual memorial to honor those who gave their lives in response to the terrorist attacks, said Rabbi Mark Greenspan of the Oceanside Jewish Center, a past president of the group who opened the memorial. On each occasion, a tree is planted on the green, the idea being to provide a ³living² memorial rather than monuments, Greenspan said.
As the crowd sang ³American the Beautiful,² the Marinos, along with their daughter, Lynda, and her husband, Adam Nislow, symbolically shoveled the dirt around the tree planted on the green. To be asked to speak at the memorial was, for the Marinos, another example of the support, concern and encouragement they had received from family and friends. It had gotten them and Ken¹s wife, Katrina, and their young children, Kristin and Tyler, through some very difficult times, Mary Ann said.
The various memorials honoring Ken include a street dedication on the corner of Weidner Avenue, where he grew up, and a bench on the boardwalk and a garden of remembrance in Long Beach. Ken, 40, was a firefighter at departments in Long Beach, Mineola and upstate Monroe after he joined Oceanside¹s Hose Company when he turned 18. He worked with Rescue One for the last two of his 11 years with the FDNY.
His final resting place, ground zero, is one his mother regards as sacred land on a par with Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor, where she would like not to see offices, apartments or a subway built. ³It¹s a cemetery as far as I¹m concerned,² she said, ³and I¹d like to see it treated as such.²
Among the OIC¹s representatives who spoke or led prayers were the Rev. Jim French of St. Anthony¹s Church, the Rev. Randy Broger of First Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Peter Swan of Lutheran Church, Rabbi Uri Goren of Temple Avodah and the Rev. Janet Porcher of the First United Methodist Church. Porcher¹s prayer, entitled ³One,² read, in part, ³As we carried each other down the stairs of the burning building, we became one class² Š ³As the firefighters and police officers fought their way into the inferno, we became one gender² Š ³As we gave our blood in lines a mile long, we became one body² Š ³As we retell with pride of the sacrifice of the heroes, we become one people.²
Both Mary Ann Marino and Goren asked the crowd ‹ which included state Sen. Dean Skelos, Hempstead Town Councilman Anthony Santino, members of the Oceanside Board of Education and Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown ‹ to remember the soldiers stationed around the globe who defend America. Marino asked listeners to particularly remember 1st Lt. Ronald Winchester, a Marine killed in Iraq in 2004 who attendant Oceanside Middle School and whose mother, Marianna, an Oceanside gym teacher and coach, was in the audience.
³Remember all the troops that we lost in Iraq,² Marino concluded. ³ Š Whether or not you support the war doesn¹t matter, but you should support our troops. And let¹s do everything possible to bring them home safely.²
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
