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RIDGEFIELD, Conn. Its been 11 years since the tragic attack on the World Trade Center, but Ridgefield is still trying to understand why it happened.
No families came to the front to share their stories of loss during a ceremony Tuesday evening at the September 11 Memorial on the Parks and Recreation property. But several members of the local clergy stepped forward in hopes of helping to understand.
How are we to make sense of things like this? Here we are a decade later and were still trying to make sense of the death of over 3,000 innocent people, said Pastor Dan Keaton of Ridgefield Baptist Church. I dont pretend to have all the answers.
As a people, we know that hijacking a plane and flying it into a building full of people is wrong, but that doesnt help in dealing with the grief, Keaton said. He talked about how people can find a way to heal in the rebuilding of the Ground Zero site, that what once had been broken and mangled was now peaceful and clear.
One day everything sad that has ever happened to this world will come un-true, Keaton said, quoting author J.R.R. Tolkien.
Ridgefield lost two people at the attacks, Tyler Ugolyn and Joseph Heller. Their names are inscribed on marble benches surrounding the steel I-beam in the memorial that came from the wreckage at Ground Zero. A moment of silence, led by First Selectman Rudy Marconi, was held in their honor.
Ridgefield Police Chief John Roach asked piper Tom Elliot to play "Amazing Grace" to honor the memory of police officers lost that day. Fire Chief Heather Burford said that at the time of the attack the town contracted their paramedics and that Chris Blackwell died as a first responder. Firefighters and police officers considered him one of their own and felt his loss, she said.
The ceremony concluded as a line of people put white roses in front of the memorial to honor those lost.
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