New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani shared a moving video message on social media on Friday, September 11, reflecting on the terrorist attacks that took place 25 years ago.
“September 11th was a horrific act of terror. A day of immeasurable loss. 2,753 parents and children, husbands and wives, friends and colleagues. 2,753 universes gone in an instant,” Mamdani, 34, who was seated at a desk outside with the Manhattan skyline behind him, said in the video. “And in the years since, thousands more have died from illness caused by the toxic air they breathed, in the months they spent working on the pile.”
The mayor called 9/11 “the darkest day in our city’s history,” noting “we also remember what so many New Yorkers did in that darkness.”
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“We remember the thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers who lined up for hours to donate blood. We remember the people who opened their homes to those who could not get home,” he remarked. “We remember the workers who carried their colleagues down hundreds of stairs, then turned around and went back up to find someone else who needed help.”
“25 years later, we have a sacred obligation to those who were stolen from us. To care for one another how they cared for strangers,” the politician added. “To live lives worthy of the sacrifices they made and to build a city worthy of their courage. A city where we run toward one another. That is how we remember.”
On Friday morning, CBS News reported that Mamdani attended the annual ceremony at Ground Zero, as he planned. As Globe previously reported, a petition with thousands of signatures circulated to try to ban him from the event in the months ahead of the ceremony.
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One of the petitioner’s organizers, Giovanni Galante, told the New York Post in July: “Our objection is based on his public record — his failure to meaningfully acknowledge the horror of that day, and his employment of, support for, or association with individuals who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested America ‘deserved’ the attacks.”
Additionally, in a Sunday, September 6, interview with Newsmax, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani said, “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”
However, while appearing on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin called the petition “absolutely inappropriate” and said it was “unfortunate” that people were “trying to politicize this.”
This story NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Shares 9/11 Message, Attends Ground Zero Ceremony After Petition to Keep Him Out first appeared on Globe. Follow Globe on Yahoo so you don’t miss what’s coming next.