Black streamers, flags mark 9-11's sixth anniversary

On her way home Tuesday from a day in her classroom at the Oak Ridge School District, Sandy Hinton stopped at the display of more than 200 flags on the memorial hill in Cape County Park North to take a few photos and reflect on the tragic events six years ago in New York.

Hinton's sister-in-law, Susan Hinton, was lucky that day. An employee of the French company COFACE, Susan Hinton worked in an office on the 24th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Only a decision to walk the final few blocks to work from a subway stop prevented Susan Hinton from being in the building when the airplanes piloted by Islamic terrorists struck.

Susan Hinton's mother was able to reach her on her cell telephone briefly before the second strike. "She blurted out she was OK, then the phone went dead," Sandy Hinton said. "For several hours, it was very scary."

Thoughts of her sister-in-law -- Sandy Hinton is married to Susan Hinton's brother, John -- and those who were not so fortunate compelled her to stop at the memorial. The flags surround the Cape Girardeau County war memorial overlooking U.S. 61 between Jackson and Cape Girardeau.

The remembrance is a fitting tribute, Hinton said. It shows that people have not forgotten that day.

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, political divisions have grown as the country debates whether the war in Iraq was a necessary response to the attacks. But Hinton, who teaches special education classes at Oak Ridge, said 9-11 isn't about politics and declined to discuss her political feelings.

At her school today, she said, the attacks were remembered with a poem read over the intercom and a moment of silence. Older children understand the significance of the event, she said, but younger students must be told.

And for the youngest, who weren't born when the attacks took place, teachers cover the basics to explain the significance of the day, she said.

Around Cape Girardeau and Jackson, individuals placed flags outside their homes and flag memorials that appear on other patriotic holidays were either at half-staff or tied with a black streamer of mourning.

At Grace United Methodist Church at Caruthers Avenue and Broadway in Cape Girardeau, those streamers were the work of two Southeast Missouri State University freshmen who have been lifelong friends and Girl Scout troop members.

Rachel Cain and Rachel Burnett received Girl Scout gold awards for their work to make it easier to place and remove the flags and for raising money to purchase flags of each branch of the U.S. military service, a POW/MIA flag and a large American flag.

The black cotton streamers flew on the flags Tuesday for the first time. "It was the finishing touch on the project," Cain said.

"We were trying to get them ready for 9-11," she said. "It honors all the people who are fighting for our country, the people fighting and the people who risk their lives and the people who died. It is a memorial to them."

Boy and Girl Scout troops take turns placing and removing the flags each holiday.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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