In the days after the September 11, 2001, attacks, theaters across New York City reopened and audiences slowly returned. One small off-Broadway musical, The Fantasticks, became a refuge of sorts because of its opening song, “Try to Remember.”
It begins:
Try to remember the kind of September,
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
The Fantasticks is a small show, often performed by high schools and community theaters, that speaks of a simpler time. When the show opened in May of 1960, it was a simpler time. Even the mythical Camelot of the Kennedy administration had yet to begin. And for perspective, it would be more than six years later before the groundbreaking for the original World Trade Center.
Our region, post 9/11, was not a simpler time and place, and audiences would cry with a lyric that spoke not just of a simpler time and place, but of a September “when no one wept except the willow.”
Here we are today, 25 years after that horrible Tuesday in September, speaking of never forgetting. We should never forget, but we also must try to remember. Not the day. Not the shock. Not the pain. But remember the people we lost.
For the past five years, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, holds a Rose Ceremony where attendees leave roses next to the names of the 84 people the Port Authority lost on 9/11, and those who died in the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Each person attending the ceremony is handed a rose with the name of a person who perished during one of those tragic events. We walk to that person’s name etched in the bronze surrounding the pools, framing the shape of the original North and South towers. We place a rose at that name, and each year, I encourage all those participating to say that name aloud.
We also leave roses at The Glade that marks the deaths of the first responders, and the heroes who worked on The Pile, who died or became sick in the subsequent years following 9/11.
This year, the Port Authority is dedicating a new memorial in Liberty Park. It is a tribute to our people – our family – the 84 individuals who died on 9/11, those who died in 1993, and those who have since gotten sick or perished due to 9/11-related illnesses.
Many visitors to the World Trade Center campus who read the names along the voids where Twin Towers once stood are unaware there is some planning as to where the names are located. Most of the Port Authority employees are listed along the north side of the North Tower’s footprint. The Port Authority’s corporate headquarters was in the North Tower.
But first responders are listed on the south side of the South Tower’s footprint. It is there you will the names of the Port Authority Police Department’s 37 officers who died that day. You will also find the names of the 13 men of the World Trade Center Department, all civilians, who were, with the 37 PAPD officers, awarded the Medal of Valor posthumously.
One of the challenges we face when we “never forget 9/11,” is that many of us – and the number grows with time – never knew the people lost on that day.
For Port Authority employees in 2001, 9/11 was not just a national tragedy; it was deeply personal. The 84 people were not just names. They were friends and colleagues. They were people with families, stories, and photos on their desks.
We cannot forget 9/11. But we also must learn about the people we lost so we can remember who they were.
I find it odd that 25 years later, few speak of Neil D. Levin. He was the executive director of the Port Authority and he died on 9/11, just five days before his 47th birthday. He was appointed executive director on April 6, 2001, so counting that start date, he only served 159 days, slightly less than half a year.
In such a short tenure, there are no buildings or bridges to point at and say, “that was because of Neil.” And perhaps that is why few speak of him because, particularly when it comes to government leaders, we are remembered more for the public infrastructure we create than for the personal infrastructure that defined who we were.
I did not know Neil, but I want to remember him, to say more than his name and leave it at that. He grew up on Long Island and had a wife and two stepdaughters. He worked in finance and in government. Of note, he had been the chairman of the New York State Commission on the Recovery of Holocaust Victims’ Assets.
Yes, I want to remember Neil. It is a challenge.
The nearly 3,000 names along the sides of the former Twin Towers are too numerous to fathom. The fewer than 100 names on our Port Authority family are more manageable.
So, I send out a challenge to my colleagues, but also to all of you. Find a name on our new memorial in Liberty Park, or along the sides of the voids. Find a name. Say that name. Leave a rose, as we will this year at our Rose Ceremony. But then try to learn something about that person.
We strive not to forget but we cannot forget what we never learned.
Lyricist Tom Jones ends his famous song with these extraordinarily prescient words:
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
Although you know, the snow will follow.
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
The fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December, our hearts should remember
And follow, follow, follow.
Let us never forget.
Let us always remember.
Kevin J. O’Toole is the Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.