"Mourning America's tragedy"

Community members search for hope in the ruins of Trade Centre devastation

By Paul Baswick

SIX NATIONS - The shockwaves unleashed in last week's terrorist attacks on the United States still seemed too powerful to fully absorb as community members joined in prayer this week in hopes of coming to terms with the tragic events of Sept. 11.

Memorial services have been held on Six Nations and New Credit over the past eight days to mark the recent attacks on the Pentagon in Washington and the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, which are feared to have claimed the lives of more the 5,000 people from 40 different countries.

A sunrise service observing the victims of the attacks was held by elder Isaac Day on Friday, Sept. 14 at the New Credit Pow Wow Grounds. A sacred fire burned throughout the day, welcoming those who stopped by to offer their prayers to those affected by the attacks.

The traditional observance was followed later that day with a 12 p.m. memorial service at St. Paul's Anglican Church on Sour Springs Road. About 50 people attended the cross-denominational service, led by pastors from local Anglican, Baptist and United Churches. Members from the Pentecostal Church in Six Nations were also on-hand at the Health Centre in Ohsweken Friday to join those wishing to observe the tragic events through fellowship.

A second cross-denominational service was held at Six Nations Veterans Park Monday at noon, led by pastors from United and Pentecostal Churches and the New Credit Fellowship Centre.

Among those leading the services this week was Rev. Lee Claus of the United Chapel of the Delaware in New Credit, who took part in Friday's service at St. Paul's and

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Monday's memorial at Veterans Park. The importance of joining in fellowship, he says, is to allow the community to mourn the suffering, but also to search for the hope in the potentially turbulent times ahead.

The need to weep for the past and to rally strength for the future was perhaps best symbolized during Friday's service at St. Paul's, when community members were invited to share their grief by tearing strips from a black cloth, and then light a candle as a symbol of hope.

"Tearing the cloth isn't a typical part of every service, but it's a traditional and I think appropriate way to mourn a tragedy such as this," says Claus.

"By actually feeling the cloth rip in your hands, by hearing it tear, it allows you to bring your grief and frustration from inside you and out into the open. But hope must follow grief, which is why we've invited everyone to light a candle."

As dark as the last week has been to many around the world, the days following the attacks have also been a time to give thanks. A number of steelworkers hailing from Six Nations, Akwesasne and Kahnawake, were working in and around lower Manhattan when the World Trade Centre was leveled, and all are reported to have escaped injury.

Among them is Jeff Reid of Six Nations, who was working almost directly across the World Trade Centre at the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, on the opposite side of the East River. Through luck or through fate, Reid and his crew maintained a relatively safe distance from the attack site, although it was originally planned that they were to be stationed much closer.

"On the day that it happened I was supposed to be working at the World Trade Centre. We had already loaded our equipment in over there," says Reid, a member of Iron Workers Local 263 out of Dallas/Fort Worth.

"I was a week delayed because I couldn't get this job at the hospital finished."

Reid says he was at the top of the hospital when he started noticing debris falling from the sky.

"We noticed paper and ash started raining down on the Brooklyn side, so we went down to the street, where we saw everybody on their cell phones and a whole lot of commotion, and asked someone what was happening," he says.

"They said a plane had just hit the World Trade Centre, and while we were talking to them about that we heard the second blast. It was like an earthquake. We walked down near the water here, we looked across, and saw the big gaping holes."

Reid's crew then began clearing the way for the many victims which would soon be rushed to the hospital.

"They immediately took us off of the hospital and we had to assist with the victims they brought. When it happened they had to put the floor we were working on back together in a matter of an hour. We had to get all the beds back up that had been taken down to the basement, put the doors back on. While we were doing that they were starting to wheel them in."

Reid has been among many of the steel workers in New York who have volunteered to help with the search and rescue effort at the disaster site, but so far he hasn't been called in to take part in the operation.

"We're on the volunteer list to go to the actual site but we haven't gone down there yet. What we've heard is as of today FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is contracting out the work and are paying for the clean up now," he says.

"I think they'll still need to have the volunteers back, though. No company would be able to have enough manpower to do that job. I'm sure they'll be there a year trying to clean this up."

But like many who mourned the tragedy in services on Six Nations and New Credit Reid says believes there are signs of hope to be found within the devastation.

"It wasn't a very good place to be when it first happened, but the way the people here are handling now is just incredible," he says.

"Everybody here has got a flag on their hat or their shirt and are waving a flag around in their hands. They're working together. There are no republicans, no democrats - they're just people now. It's a kind of co-operation everyone should experience in their lifetime."