September 11, 2006

Westchester County Board of Legislators
Remember Victims of 9/11

County Legislator Vito Pinto, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, led the Board's special tribute to the victims of 9/11. The meeting fell on the fifth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center that took the lives of 2400 innocent victims.	Legislator Pinto and Board Chair Bill Ryan at the unveiling of The Rising on Sunday, September 10, the county's memorial to the 109 Westchester residents who perished that fateful day.

Reflections of County Legislator Vito Pinto

Five years later...

I am honored to have been asked by my colleagues to lead the Board's tribute tonight to the memory of the victims of the 9/11 attack.

I speak as a veteran who now stands before you as an ordinary citizen. We have holidays to celebrate events in our history that make us call to mind the heroism of men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. When I was serving my country in Vietnam, I woke up every morning knowing that my life was on the line. That’s the life of an active duty soldier.

But September 11 was something very different.

September 11 was about ordinary people who didn’t know they would die for freedom that day. They didn’t wear uniforms and they weren’t trained to shoot an enemy. The World Trade Center was transformed from a place of business to a battleground for Freedom. Ordinary people, like you and me, were killed in the line of duty. Quite simply, their sole offense was that they were living as a free people.

The 2,400 people who perished at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 woke up on a cloudless morning, unaware that they would become what I consider soldiers that day.

They woke up, like many of us, thinking of the phone calls and business meetings they had to make that day. They were wives and husbands, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, nephews, nieces, grandparents and friends going about their daily routine. They may have kissed a sleeping child good bye in the dark before chasing a train, or, taken their dog out for an early morning walk. They may have dropped a child off at school before heading to work.

Before long, these otherwise ordinary people would find out that living in freedom, like fighting for freedom, is a potentially dangerous activity; that those who hate what our country stands for decided to bypass traditional military conflict in favor of attacking an office building full of innocent people going about their daily routines.

Our hearts all stopped that day. We didn’t have to know a victim personally to be sad. On that day, it didn’t matter what color you were or what ethnic group you came from; it didn’t matter what language you spoke. All that mattered is that we were all interconnected in a way we couldn’t quite verbalize. We felt the need to fly our flag and support each other. We searched our souls for answers to Why?

At some point, I think, the spirit of those we lost that day descended on all of us—their simple message was: despite all of our outward differences, we were the same at the core.

We loved our freedom.
We loved this country that allows us to live in freedom.
And, at some level, we appreciate the chaotic mix of people  that makes this country the great place it is.

Those thousands of ordinary people who died that day shared one characteristic--- they had the courage to live in freedom. Those who died on September 11, 2001 taught us that we can never take our freedom for granted and that by living in freedom, we are all vulnerable to attack by those who would like to destroy our way of life.

Yesterday, we, as a community, gathered on another cloudless September day, eerily reminiscent of that tragic day five years ago, to remember the 109 victims from Westchester County who perished in the attack on the World Trade Center.

It’s a beautiful memorial, located on Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. It’s called The Rising. If you haven’t visited it yet, you should really get there when you can.

Many of the families of the victims attended the unveiling.

The memorial is made of intertwining metal rods that spiral upward, ending in a single, illuminated pinnacle that points toward the heavens. The names of the 109 Westchester residents who died are engraved on the base of the memorial.

Tonight this Board meets, as it has met in one form or another, for the past 300 years. But it’s not business as usual. Tonight, we pay tribute to those who perished on 9/11. Without asking for it, they found themselves on the front lines of freedom that day.

Those who died that day represent a new kind of soldier, defined as someone who has the courage to live in freedom, as we are tonight, in this Chamber. We must have the courage to disagree with each other, to express a contrary point of view and know that freedom means putting up with people and ideas you didn’t necessarily like but will tolerate because that’s what freedom entails.

The enemies of freedom may have engaged another front. They would like nothing more than to intimidate us, to stop us from being the ordinary people that make our nation great. I have news for them. That’s not going to happen. Let Freedom Ring as we rise and sing together God Bless America.