Members of the Wheeling Fire and Honor Guard post the colors during the annual Sept. 11 Service of Remembrance Monday at Heritage Port in Wheeling. Photo by Eric Ayres

WHEELING — The events of Sept. 11, 2001 were remembered during a ceremony at Heritage Port in Wheeling on Monday — as is the case every year during the anniversary of the historic terrorist attacks on the United States. But after more than two decades since those tragic events, the date has begun to represent more than just a day to commemorate one of the nation’s darkest days.

Those who remember 9/11 recall the sweeping sense of patriotism and unifying resolve that was shared by all Americans in the days and even years that followed — a silver lining that today seems to be a long forgotten detail.

The annual Sept. 11 Service of Remembrance in Wheeling brings together clergy leaders from many local churches to deliver individual prayers for first responders, for military members, for the nation, for peace, for the victims of terror and for the defenders of freedom.

It’s a ceremony that is intended to salute those who keep the nation and our communities safe, and to remember the historic event in which thousands of innocent people lost their lives. For many people, the unforgettable events of 9/11 unfolded live on television. Today, however, most college seniors — let alone high school or grade school students — were not even born when the attacks took place.

“With each passing year, the percentage of people for whom 9/11 is an actual memory gives way to the portion of those for whom it is nothing more than an historical fact,” Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott said. “For a growing number of Americans, 9/11 is to them what the Kennedy assassination was to me as a kid, and it still is. It’s an historical fact of obvious significance to which I may know many relevant facts, but it’s also a national tragedy that I will never be able to feel in my heart the same way my parents’ generation could. The same could be said of what Pearl Harbor meant to my grandparent’s generation.”

Preserving the memory of 9/11 becomes more challenging with each passing year, Elliott said, noting that the only way to truly commemorate this historic event is for people to continue sharing their stories and emotions from that time — particularly those who have first-hand experiences related to that fateful day.

Elliott noted that he himself was uncomfortably close to the tragedies of 9/11. He had finished law school and had just started at a new job at a law firm in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10. He said he vividly remembered how blue the sky was while he was on his way to work for his second day on the job. Shortly after arriving at the office, news of the attacks began to unfold on television, and then the horrific drama on TV turned into frightening uncertainty about how safe it was to be in the nation’s capital after one of the hijacked planes struck the Pentagon.

“A sense of vulnerability took root,” he said. “When the very true rumor about a fourth plane that was headed toward the White House came coupled with a false rumor about a bomb at the Treasury Office which was about a block away, true panic set into my office, and everyone just fled.”

The events of Sept. 11 had quickly devolved into something that was happening live on television to something that was happening all around them, Elliott recounted.

“I’d never felt more helpless,” he said. “I joined the exodus not so much knowing where I wanted to be, but just knowing that I didn’t want to be there.”

Cell service was overwhelmed at that time, so most people could not reach out to loved ones to let them know they were okay. Elliott said he walked across the bridge to Arlington, Virginia, to get home — a location about a mile from the Pentagon. The smell of burning jet fuel and the roar of low-flying fighter jets rattling the windows of the house are things he will never forget, the mayor recounted, noting that smoke from the crash filled the air of the otherwise crystal clear skies.

Elliott said that looking back on Sept. 11, he can think of no other time in the United States when people’s political affiliation meant less. The tragedy truly brought Americans together, and a unifying sense of patriotism soared.

“If the goal of Osama bin Laden was to cripple the American spirit, it’s safe to say his acts of unimaginable evil backfired dramatically, and only served to bring us closer together,” Elliott said. “But as I stand here today more than two decades later, it is difficult not to conclude that we somehow managed to do more harm to ourselves internally through partisan and ideological divisions than bin Laden and his foot soldiers could have ever dreamed to do to us with terrorism.”

While different ideas are part of the fabric of our nation, community leaders noted that divisions of today make the unity of post-9/11 America seem like ancient history.

“We have drifted from that moment, and it has not availed us,” said Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom. “Yes, we gather every year to remember, but do we preserve that sense of unity? Do we act in defense of the defenseless? Do we rise to protect our neighbors?”

Lief stressed the importance of remembering those things that brought everyone together.

“It should not take death and destruction and terror to bind us together as a community and as a nation,” he said. “It should not take horror and devastation to make us so afraid that we stand together for safety. It ought to be our normal course of events to want to defend our neighbors.”

History has shown that it is possible for people of all walks of life to stand united, the clergy leaders asserted.

“As we look back, we can remember how we did stand together once, therefore we know in our hearts that we can again,” Lief said. “We simply have to choose to march forward towards that promised land together. If we remember only for the sake of saying that we remembered — to pat ourselves on the back for having not missed this date on the calendar — then we have failed to honor the memories of those who gave their lives trying to rescue their fellow Americans on that day. We will have failed to honor those who defend us still today. We will have failed if it is only a day of remembrance and not a day of resolve.”

It should not take tragedy to bring everyone together again, Lief noted.

“Let us choose to make tomorrow — and all the tomorrows that lie before us filled with hope and possibility — days on which we would stand together again without having to be attacked — without having to be suffering and in pain, without having to be threatened into doing what we know is right,” he said. “As the years go by, this day should be a day that reminds us to act with courage, with bravery, with commitment, with true patriotism in defense of the right for all of our neighbors to live in freedom, in safety and in peace.”

A quintet of musicians from the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra performed patriotic numbers throughout Monday’s service along the riverfront. Members of the Wheeling Fire and Police Honor Guard presented the colors during the ceremony, and prayers were offered by Rabbi Lief, The Rev. Ken Hardway of First Christian Church, The Rev. Erica Harley of Vance Memorial Presbyterian Church, Suff. Bishop Darrell Cummings of Bethlehem Apostolic Temple and The Rev. Paul Schafer of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church.