As young school students born long after the 9/11 terrorist attacks stood attentively and the choir from Oak Lawn High School sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Oak Lawn officials Wednesday said the village would never forget that day despite the passage of time.
On the 23rd anniversary of the attacks, a pastor called it “that wretched day, when our whole world stopped,” and Mayor Terry Vorderer described the events as leaving “a permanent mark” in the collective memory.
Standing among beams recovered from the Twin Towers, and one of the largest collections of World Trade Center steel outside of New York City, Vorderer said the village’s 9/11 First Responder’s Memorial demonstrates Oak Lawn “is committed to never forgetting” the terror attacks.
Patriot Day observances were also held in Midlothian, New Lenox and Tinley Park.
Oak Lawn’s assembly of beams and sculptures are outside the 95th Street Metra station, called Patriot Station, but another piece of World Trade Center steel is traveling the Midwest, thanks to the efforts of the Oak Lawn Children’s Museum and village resident Bill Egan.
Two pieces, collectively weighing about 3,000 pounds, are being transported with the help of Egan’s large pickup truck and a custom-designed trailer donated for the effort. The two sections of beams were incorporated into a 9/11 interactive display at the museum, just east of the Metra station.
So far the beams have been in Lockport, Ottawa, Elkhart, Indiana, Muskegon, Michigan, and are now in a museum in Witchita, Kansas, Egan said after the Patriot Day ceremony.
“It’s designed to teach kids about patriotism as a result of the attacks,” said Egan, who is on the children’s museum’s board of directors.
He is also a member of Oak Lawn’s Fire & Police Commission.
Egan said the pieces were displayed to great success at the USS Silversides Submarine Museum in Muskegon.
“Once we realized the impact we received in Michigan we knew we had a true treasure,” he said.
Another piece of steel, stashed away in storage in a village building, was uncovered and incorporated into a 9/11 exhibit that will be displayed at Village Hall. It’s the work of firefighter Joe Keenan, and though a few finishing touches need to be applied, it was unveiled at Wednesday’s ceremony.
The chunk of beam was cut from a larger section that is part of the Patriot Station memorial and put into storage and discovered a couple of years ago, Keenan said.
A steel base mimics the appearance of one of the Twin Towers, then more steel, in the form of a pentagon, sits atop that with the small section of beam perched on top. The entire thing weighs about 800 pounds, and several firefighters carted it to Egan’s trailer for the ride back to a fire station.
“I had to jump at the opportunity,” Keenan said of the discovery of the piece.
He said he worked on it over the course of two years at the fire station where he works from, at 53rd Court and 95th Street.
“I would come in on off days, when I was off duty,” Keenan said. “This was my fourth or fifth design.”
Keenan said he has three children and was in eighth grade at the time of the 9/11 attacks.
Vorderer said the terrorist acts were borne out of “fanaticism,” and he lashed out at efforts in this country to suppress freedom of speech.
He said fanaticism “cannot long exist in an atmosphere of free and unfettered expression,” and that protecting that right “is the weapon that can prevent future acts like 9/11.”
Oak Lawn fire Chief Michael McMillin said the village had to convince authorities in New York to allocate sections of recovered beams, as many communities around the country were vying for parts of steel.
“We had to make our case as far as how accessible it would be to the public, things like that,” he said.
McMillin also noted how the attacks left an indelible mark, but it was different from some other tragic events in U.S. history such as the bombing attack on Pearl Harbor or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“We saw it live, as it unfolded and was happening,” McMillin said. “We saw it for days, weeks months, and everybody had an opportunity to be touched by the events.”
mnolan@southtownstar.com
