“Who among us has not experienced the awkwardness and discomfort of those chance encounters with our neighbors who lost loved ones that fateful morning. We want desperately to be able to come up with just the right words or just the exact actions to help ease their pain, even after all these years. Failing miserably in our efforts, though, we can only hope that our caring and compassion are enough…Most importantly, we easily recall the terrific transformation which came across our nation in the days and weeks following Sept. 11, how we set aside our differences and took stock of our common humanity, how we joined together as a choir of diversity singing with one voice and giving solace to all

Edwin Fare, Valley Stream mayor:

“As most of you standing here know, I’m an educator with the Valley Stream Central High School District. Last week, I faced my eighth-grade classes for the first day and something struck me immediately. I realized these 13-year-old students were newborns that day, and all my future eight-grade classes will have been born after 2001. To them, these attacks are history, not current events. In our schools and in our homes, it is our job to remind, inform and educate future generations of the significance and impact of these events.”