|
|
| |
| Fri, Dec. 5, 2008 |  |
 |
|
||
| |
Five years later, governor, victims' families remember Sept. 11 Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 By Betsy Turner Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Rebecca McDowell's niece, Sara Low, was serving as a flight attendant for America Airlines on Sept. 11, 2001. The airlines initially told Low's family the 27-year-old Batesville High graduate was not flying that fateful morning but later discovered that she had switched shifts and perished aboard Flight 11, the first of two jetliners to crash into the World Trade Center. Low, who had "answered the wanderlust" to join the airline travel industry, never married or had children but did much in her short life, such as riding her bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, McDowell remembered Monday at a state Capitol ceremony marking the fifth anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. "She loved her life, she enjoyed her life and lived every moment to the fullest," McDowell said. Gov. Mike Huckabee, who led victims' families and local dignitaries in a three-block "Freedom Walk" to the Capitol, said Americans should stand united to remember the victims, honor military personnel and pay tribute to emergency responders. He urged the nation to put politics aside for the observance and stand committed to the idea of a free people. "While the terrorists and those who support them will always want to inflict death and harm on us, the American resilience and resolve remains solid today," Huckabee said. He praised military and emergency services personnel as the "truest heroes that we have in our culture" for risking their lives, often for little pay or recognition. Families of Sept. 11 victims from Arkansas spoke about the importance of remembering the lives of their relatives rather than their deaths. When Bald Knob native Malissa White decided to move to New York, her family worried that her compassion and generous nature would lead her to give everything away, her aunt, Marva Holiday, said Monday. Holiday recalled White allowing a woman, who was searching for a home after relocating to Arkansas, and her children to stay in a two bedroom apartment White shared with her sister despite the cramped space. "Her sister said, 'Well, I'm not giving up my room,' but Malissa gladly gave up her room for the woman and her four children," Holiday said. Such acts of kindness earned White the respect of her work colleagues, friends and family, Holiday said. Although White died when the World Trade Center collapsed, Holiday said her kindness and strong Christian faith would be long remembered. A large American flag held high by extended ladders from two fire trucks parked in front of the Capitol waved majestically during the brief ceremony. A pair of men stood with signs alluding to a Sept. 11 conspiracy at separate areas around the grounds but did not disrupt the event. |
