The world is taking time to reflect today on the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Today there will be ceremonies at the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania and in lower Manhattan for the dedication of the national Sept. 11 memorial.
The 9/11 memorial in New York began at 8:30 a.m., with a moment of silence 16 minutes later coinciding with the exact time when the first tower of the trade center was struck by a hijacked jet.
Following that the names of all 2,977 victims will be read.
While the 9/11 memorial was dedicated this morning, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden joined the families of the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania who fought back against their hijackers.
“The moment America’s democracy was under attack our citizens defied their captors by holding a vote,” Bush said. “The choice they made would cost them their lives.”
The passengers and crew gave “the entire country an incalculable gift: They saved the capital from attack,” an untold amount of lives and denied al-Qaida the symbolic victory of “smashing the center of American government,” Clinton said.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to attend ceremonies in New York, The Pentagon and Pennsylvania and is scheduled to speak at a Sunday evening service at the Kennedy Center.
9/11 memorials will continue today here in America and across the world.
HipHopWired sends our condolences to those who lost loved ones and thoughts and prayers to all those affected by this tragedy.
To see The Associated Press’ live coverage of the 9/11 memorials, click here.
