Village of Mineola Mayor Scott Strauss presided for those gathered at the village’s September 11 memorial on Tuesday night, but he addmitted his mind was on many who were not there.
Strauss, a former member of the New York Police Department special services unit who was among the emergency responders on the scene of the Twin Tower attacks, said he was thinking of friends in the police department who died that day and the loved ones they left behind.
“I think of kids left without fathers and mothers. I feel their pain,” Strauss said following the ceremonies. “I get to go home to my family tonight.”
Strauss said he also attended the ceremonies at the September 11th memorial in lower Manhattan, the site of his own efforts to successfully save two first responders buried in the rubble of the towers 11 years before.
A visibly emotional Strauss joined the many gathered in Mineola as a color guard of members of the Mineola Fire Department filed silently into Mineola Memorial Park to the 9/11 Memorial, followed by fellow firefighters, junior department members and members of the ladies auxiliary.
Former Mineola Deputy Mayor John DaVanzo, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, led the crowd of residents and local Boy Scouts gathered in the park for the ceremony in the pledge of allegiance.
Rebecca Bastos, a junior at Mineola High School, sang a stirring rendition of the national anthem.
Featured speaker Nassau County Legislator Richard Nicolello remarked on how similar the clear mild day had been to the day of the attacks 11 years ago. He acknowledged Strauss’s role as one of those who participated in rescue efforts after the towers fell.
“That day showed us the worst of human behavior with people trying to kill us. But that day also showed us the best of human behavior,” Nicolello said.
“We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom,” Nicolello added, concluding, “God bless America, God bless our troops, God bless our families, God bless us all.”
Rev. Chester Easton of the First Presbyterian Church in Mineola, offered the benediction near the conclusion of the somber observance.
“We ask this day that you touch each one of us this day with the comfort needed to continue,” he said, concluding, “We would ask that you hear our prayers, those that we have spoken aloud and those that have been muttered in our hearts.”
The brief observance concluded with the playing of taps as Carl Marchese, commander of Mineola American Legion Post 349 placed a wreath at the 9/11 Memorial and solemnly saluted with two other members of the post.
After the ceremony, state Sen. Jack Martins said he was recalling the events of that day 11 years ago, the resolve that Americans demonstrated in the aftermath and the apparent change in the mood of the country today.
“I was thinking in the aftermath of September 11th the way we strived for unity. There was nothing we couldn’t do,” Martins said. “Now it seems there’s nothing we can do. It would be nice to see us restore that sense of purpose.”
Marchese said he was visiting the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Northport on Tuesday morning when taps was played on the sound system. He said he felt chills as he came to attention with a fellow veteran. As they watched television coverage of the ceremonies in lower Manhattan, he recalled tearing up as he listened to speakers talking about their lost loved ones.
As one who had lost family members suddenly, he said he understood what the families felt.
“I feel sympathetic with these people, having loved ones taken without warning,” Marchese said.
