Editor’s Note: Shining a Light on Heroes

My deepest memories of Sept. 11, 2001, come from when I first learned about the terrorist attacks — I thought the guy ranting at the Burger King drive-thru as he handed me my breakfast sandwich was crazy — and from its aftermath a couple of months later, when I drove my mother-in-law to the airport in New York and could see from the distance the space in the horizon where the Twin Towers used to stand.

Like everyone else, I watched the endlessly repeated footage of American Airlines Flight 11, co-piloted by Navy veteran and Portsmouth resident Tom McGuiness, crashing into the North Tower of the World Trade Center after it was hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists. McGuinness and 42 passengers with New Hampshire connections, three of them also veterans, were among the 2,977 who      died in the attacks.

As the nation commemorates the 25th anniversary of 9/11 this month, Renee Plummer wants people in New Hampshire to embrace a new memory — one that will illuminate the summit of the highest peak in New England to honor veterans, firefighters and first responders.

“The Honor Summit” installation from Sept. 9 to Sept. 12 will feature two huge LED light beams that will reach 3 miles into the sky from the top of Mount Washington from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. each day and will be visible within a radius of 135 miles around the summit. (For details, visit honorsummitnh.org.)

The Granite Springs Foundation, which is organizing The Honor Summit, was founded by Plummer — a Portsmouth businesswoman and long-time supporter of veterans. The Summit was inspired by a similar installation that was hosted by the National 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York.

“As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, I find myself reflecting on how differently
this day is experienced,” Plummer said in a statement announcing the tribute. “For many of us, the memory is immediate and deeply personal. For others, especially kids, it is something learned — not lived. The Honor Summit was created to bridge that distance. To ensure that this moment in our history is not only remembered but felt — together.”

Brig. Gen. Al Aldenberg of the New Hampshire National Guard appeared with Plummer in
a video posted to Facebook to promote the tribute.

“Here we are 250 years as a nation, and now we’re at the 25th anniversary of 9/11. As a society, as a country, we have become very fractured,” Aldenberg said. “This is an opportunity to kind of recalibrate, refocus and remember what happened to this country.”

It’s also a time to remember the first responders who perished trying to save the lives of others, Plummer said.

“This is the time to stop everything and to think back about what they did for us.”

Longtime contributor Crystal Ward Kent revisits September 11, 2001, in a story told through the voices of the survivors of New Hampshire residents who died in the attacks (page 44.) 

Even after all these years, it’s not an easy story to read. While the chaos that ensues as the attacks happen leaves you with a chill, it’s the profound sense of loss expressed by the families that resonates the most.

“The world will never know what these individuals might have accomplished, but it can long remember who they were and how they lived,” Kent writes. “This is the legacy of September 11, 2001, that matters most — the lives that shone bright for too short a time.”