9/11 Service Emphasizes Duty, Honor, Self-Sacrifice, Love

The James Madison Memorial Garden on the Madison town green outside Memorial Town Hall was named for the lead author of the U.S.  Constitution and is dedicated to four people with Madison roots who perished on Sept. 11, 2001.

At a remembrance ceremony Sunday evening, Arthur H. Criddle of Madison said it was fitting that the purpose of the garden was so closely intertwined with our country’s most cherished values.

“The terrorists tried to wrest those values from us,” he said. “They did not succeed.”

Marilyn Bullis, the mother of Dianne Bullis-Snyder, a flight attendant with American Airlines who died on 9/11, said the decision to put her daughter’s memorial tree in that garden, with the help of Norman C. “Dutch” Heilman, and others in town, marked the beginning of the healing process for herself and her family.

"Thank you for caring"

 “We wanted a memorial tree and I told him what I would like to do, and he said, ‘why not right here,’” she said during the remembrance service at the packed First Congregational Church, which is across the town green from the garden. She added that Dutch Heilman passed away in 2004 and that she was “so glad to know him.” “Thank you for caring. It helped us get through,” she said.

First Selectman Fillmore McPherson said during the service that, for him, more than anything, “it’s the names. It’s the names that give clarity to seminal events” like 9/11. “It’s the names that connect these numbers to real people.” He said he often stops at memorials, whether at the Madison town green, Memorial Town Hall, or war memorials, to reflect upon the names written in memory of those who have died. “Real people, real heroes” he said. “2,996 people died. That’s a big number … it’s tragic, it’s horrible … but it’s the names. Dianne Bullis-Snyder, Anthony Demas, Peter Gelinas, Robert Peraza. Real Madison people. Real families. Real memories.”

State Rep. Noreen Kokoruda said 9/11 “was a day of terrible tragedy … and terrific acts of courage.” She said what happened that day underscored the fact that “what is truly important in our lives is each other.” She said that Americans can be proud of how the country came together that day and that we can “recall and celebrate how we acted.” While the country still has enemies in the world, she said, our values remain unchanged, “duty, loyalty, self-sacrifice and love.”

“Celebrate kindness of the human spirit,” she said. “Good will continue to endure and it will prevail. God bless America.”

"Misused power of demonic proportions"

The Rev. Dr. Linda Smith-Criddle, who went down to New York City following the attacks to volunteer in a morgue, recalled her initial reaction to “misused power of demonic proportions.” She recalled the catastrophe, and then the “pilgrims” who came to the city wanting to help. She remembered for many months the city was shrouded in grey ash. She worked with others to “sanctify and make holy the moment” when remains were brought to the makeshift morgue.

And then, around Easter of 2002, she recognized a shift. The emergency responders she worked with were back to watching disaster movies. “How odd,” she said she thought at first, and then she realized it was not odd at all, that they and others were recovering from the horror. She looked out one day and was astonished at the bright sunlight. Then, when she was taken back to her train one night, she looked out the window and “there was the city very much alive in the darkness, with its lights flaming.” She said New York City was “still and always known for its pluck. … It occurred to me that the city was not unlike the US of A. “

She said “in the aftermath of 9/11, let us remember first of all to love, love all those we know and all those we don’t know. Let us look back and remember ten years ago and also look forward to imagine how we can make the world better. Practice forgiveness … Practice loving kindness … May God bless you and keep you from this day forward forevermore.”

The service was just about to wrap up when Kevin Garrity, asking forgiveness for the interruption, said he wanted to thank a few other people. He described how, after 9/11 he wanted to deliver thousands of flashlights to help out. But he needed help to deliver that help. And help came through quickly in the form of his fellow Madison residents Jim Sullivan, Bob Blundon, Ryan Duques, and Kevin’s brother Paul Garrity Jr.

"America's finest moments came from adversity"

“They took several trips with me to the front lines,” he said. He said he was inspired by seeing all the young people in the audience at the remembrance service, including boy scout troops and girl scout troops. He said he wanted them to know that “America’s finest moments came from adversity … Everyone came together and helped one another,” he said, to a round of applause from the people in attendance.