Healing or not 9/11 events keep us close

Cars packed the village hall parking lot Tuesday for Hoffman Estates' Sept. 11 remembrance.

Village Clerk Bev Romanoff said 175 people attended the event, which featured Hoffman Estates resident and Schaumburg firefighter Lt. John Schneidwind's presentation of photos from Ground Zero. Schneidwind left for New York City with other Chicago-area firefighters at 5 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2001, to help.

Schneidwind said he's been conflicted over the years about making such presentations, but he's committed to ensuring the Sept. 11 victims don't become "footnotes in our lives."

Attendance at the event has steadily increased each year, members of the Celebrations Commission said. It's organized the event the last five years. Some question the relevance of Sept. 11 memorials, and Police Chief Clinton Herdegen has an answer.

"It is important we do not allow our wounds to heal," he said.

Schneidwind also reminds us that a large percentage of Ground Zero first-responders suffer from some sort of respiratory ailment. The Sept. 11 attacks continue to haunt us.

The village also invited religious leaders to speak Tuesday, and the audience heard Christians, Muslims and Sikhs bound together with a message of peace and lamenting both the lives lost and the ones forever altered.

Kuldip Singh Makker of the Sikh Religious Society proudly wears his turban, and noted how some Sikhs have been unfairly called terrorists. He also wears a long beard like many Americans.

"Some even have short beards like Mayor McLeod," Makker points out.

For me, I noticed some of those cars in the lot on Tuesday had those familiar American flags clipped to windows, the same ones we saw so many of in the months just after the attacks.

I have four friends stationed in Iraq, with another Marine prepping to ship out. He flies fighter jets and could be deployed to Baghdad. Two other friends miraculously survived after being pinned under some downtown New York rubble. One of them continues to see a therapist.

All that means is I'm not sure I need a Sept. 11 memorial to be reminded, but if it brings us closer together, then there are no complaints.