Oceanside remembers Sept. 11

As dark clouds gathered on the horizon, threatening rain, people from all over Oceanside gathered in front of the refurbished memorial on the Schoolhouse Green on Sept. 10 to remember those lost on Sept. 11, 2001, and to share hopes of a future filled with peace and unity.
“As I look around today, I remember why we’re really here,” said Rabbi Mark Greenspan, president of the Oceanside Interfaith Council and leader of the Oceanside Jewish Center, as he welcomed nearly 100 people who came to pay their respects. “Not to mourn the past, but to be thankful we are still here.”
This year’s Day of Remembrance was larger than in previous years, incorporating not just readings by members of the Interfaith Council, which organized the event, but groups from the Oceanside School District as well. After Greenspan’s welcome, the Oceanside Fire Department color guard filed in, and Breanna and Kira Metcalf-Oshinsky led everyone in the national anthem.
“Today we gather — people of different faiths and traditions — to remember and honor those who were tragically lost and those who gave of themselves unselfishly on Sept. 11, 2001,” said the Rev. Jim French of St. Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church, an Interfaith Council member. “All gave some and some gave all. This was a true act of humanity in the face of hate.”
Throughout the brief ceremony, speakers returned to the theme of peace in the future. “Bless the people and leaders of this nation and all nations so that warfare, like slavery before it, may become only an historic memory,” the Rev. Randy Broger of the First Presbyterian Church said in a prayer.

The choir from the Boardman Elementary School 9E, led by director Erin Degnan, regaled the gathering with “A Song of Peace,” about a magic song that could join the world together in peace.
Earlier, before a somber reading of the names of those lost on Sept. 11 that were submitted by members of the community, the Rev. Janet Porsher of the First United Methodist Church led the group in a litany that echoed the day’s message of peace. “In a time filled with tragedy, we dare to hope for an era yet to come in which the slaughter of innocents, greed, the ambitions of power and cultural, racial and religious bigotries are but memories of a dim and unenlightened past,” the participants said in unison.
“I think it’s a very good thing for the community to come together like this,” said Maryanne Lehrer, an Oceanside Board of Education trustee. “I thought it was well in keeping with what we envisioned when we started this a few years ago.”
Before the small crowd dispersed, Greenspan asked everyone to reach out and shake hands with someone sitting near them that they didn’t know. “So we can all leave this place a little closer than we were,” he said.

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