Triad reflects on legacy of 9/11

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) – Hundreds of miles from Ground Zero, the pieces of the Twin Towers are on display in the Triad. Sections of the beams are up in Reidsville and in downtown Greensboro at memorials to honor all the lives lost on 9/11.

On Wednesday, some people walked by and took a quick glance at the beams. Others stopped to reflect and remember those killed 23 years ago on that day.

“It is very heavy,” said Katie Hutchinson, from Greensboro. The meaning of the metal hits your heart. “It is something that I walk by every day. It is one of those things that it is always ever present,” Hutchinson said.

On Sept. 11 and every other day, you can see these words etched in metal at the base of the sculpture: “I stood, sat, paced, drank my coffee and watched them die, some alone, some together.”

“Hope lies in ground zero, dwells among the ashes, broken scrapes of steal,” Hutchinson said while reading the words on the sculpture

They are powerful words written by kids about 9/11.

“I will make sure to let everybody know that this is here and take some time to sit and read it,” Hutchinson said.

While she read the words in Greensboro, a mom named Dana Jones taught her three kids about 9/11 in Reidsville.

Jones and her young kids spent some time learning at the memorial outside the fire station in Reidsville.

“I really don’t think that you are ever too young to know the truth of what this firefighter did on this day … and the first responders who sacrificed their lives,” Jones said.

They saw the beams and learned an important lesson about 9/11.

“It didn’t matter whether those people in the tower were Democrat or Republican, whether they loved Jesus or another religion, they were all together,” Jones said.

Their lesson came with a message of hope for the future.

“This pulled America together … We don’t need to wait for another traumatizing, horrible experience to pull together again,” Jones said.

It’s the same lesson some people learned when they were about the same age as Jones’ kids on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I was in kindergarten, and I do have a memory of everybody being collected together … This is how we are trying to figure out how to express that to you,” Hutchinson said.

The Greensboro sculpture is located downtown at the corner of Elm Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The memorial in Reidsville is at the fire station on 402 S. Scales St.

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