Elyria Mayor calls for unity, courage at 9/11 tribute

ELYRIA — Mayor Frank Whitfield called for unity and courage while observing the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. During the annual candlelight ceremony at Ely Square, Whitfield remembered being a freshman in high school when two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center in New York City, while another hit the Pentagon and a fourth was brought down in near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. After the first plane struck the north tower at 8:46 a.m., Whitfield's class watched the live news footage. "I don't think a lot of us totally grasp the courage it took for those firefighters and those police officers to run towards danger, to run towards the fire," he said. "And the courage that it takes — so often so many of us when we see danger, we're jetting the opposite way. To have that conviction to when they see danger to run towards it." Moments before Saturday's vigil was set to start, the Elyria Fire Department rushed from Ely Square to an oil fire at Ohio Metallurgical Service on Clark Street, demonstrating that conviction. "When I think about what's needed in this country right now, what's needed in this city right now, it's that type of courage. … I pray that the spirit of courage is invoked in us in the city," he said. "When we see a problem here in the city that we respond just like those firefighters responded to the fire at (Uncle) Vic's and that fire off Abbe Road, they went toward the danger and trusted each other as a team." Alongside Whitfield's memories as a high schooler, others in the community stepped forward to share where they were when the first planes hit. An entire Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps senior class at Admiral King High School went straight to the recruiting office. "It just seemed like the right thing to do," one man said. Others were at work. One man was getting ready for his shift at Cedar Point when a detective told him to go home. He went back to his apartment, turned on the TV and then took a van full of co-workers home with him to Elyria — unsure if a plane or other attack was headed for the nuclear power station in nearby Oak Harbor. Some cried when they heard the news, others dropped to their knees in prayer. However individuals handled the initial reports, the country was united for a time after the attacks, Whitfield said,and it's something the city — and country — need to get back. "There was very few times in this country's history when we unified like after 9/11 … it was all about one nation under God," he said. (We need to) unify around our core principles of freedom, of liberty and justice for all and during these very very weird times that we're in, that we can lay aside the differences that we have and do what's best for the future of this country." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.