9:45 am Reporting by Greggory Moore | In what was merely one of myriad ways in which Long Beach marked the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks that took the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans, on Sunday night approximately 250 Long Beach residents marched two miles from Bixby Park to arrive at our own World Trade Center on Ocean Boulevard for a candlelight vigil that included short speeches from State Senator Alan Lowenthal, Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal, and Councilmember Robert Garcia, among others.
Amidst a bevy of American flags, Bonnie Lowenthal shared with the crowd that she is originally from New York and that she personally lost friends and relatives in the 9/11 attack. “It was an attack on America,” she said. “It was an attack on my home.”
Lowenthal also drew upon her previous career experience as a grief counselor, stating her belief that the entire nation has been going through post-traumatic stress disorder, something that takes years to heal. “It’s being together and caring for each other that will pull us through,” she said.
Senator Alan Lowenthal also discussed the importance of togetherness in dealing with the loss associated with such tragic events. “It’s one thing to grieve alone,” he said, “it’s another to grieve together as a community.”
One of the Long Beach Police officers watching over the gathering was David Reyes, who was touched by the gesture of Long Beach not only remembering what happened on the other side of the country a decade ago but particularly citing the courage and sacrifice of Reyes’s brethren of first-responders. “Pretty much everyone’s connected in some way,” he said.
Asked to reflect on what his fellow officers went through on 9/11, Reyes focused on the similarity of experience all people go through when confronted with such peril. “Just like any normal citizen, we get scared,” he said. “And [what the New York police officers did] just shows their bravery.”
Like all of us, Reyes, who has been a police officer for six years, remembers where he was on 9/11: “I was at home. I was 18 at the time; I had just graduated high school. I don’t think I had thoughts of being a police officer at that time. But things like that definitely shape you.”
Long Beach Police Officer David Reyes, pictured on the left
