Nation remembers and looks to future

Flag inscribed with the names of the dead

By Peter Gould BBC News Online correspondent in New York

It was a day many New Yorkers were dreading, but they got through it, and now the city is moving on.

The first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States found people here in sombre mood.

They were braced for a day of painful emotions, and many tears were shed during a moving ceremony at Ground Zero.

But today there is satisfaction that the day of remembrance and reflection was a fitting tribute to those who died.

	:	In pictures
The world remembers

The images in this morning's New York newspapers need no captions to convey the city's sense of loss for 2,801 of its citizens, killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers.

The front page of the New York Times has a large picture of a policeman kneeling amid the floral tributes, in a moment of silent prayer.

New Yorker reflects on a day of 'sad dignity'

The paper's editorial captures the mood of a city that has endured the worst year in its history.

"And so we move on," it says.

"The fact that we look forward to the future, the fact that we have no more words, does not mean the memories have lost their power."

"We carry them with us, every day."

The paper's main story anticipates the speech by President Bush to the United Nations.

The threat to remove Saddam Hussein from power is now the big issue here, with most Americans seemingly in support of military action.

There is a vocal anti-war movement, which brought demonstrators onto the streets last weekend. But they are very much a minority.

Lost souls

The tabloid New York Daily News is not the only publication to comment on the winds that swept across Ground Zero during the ceremony of remembrance.

Whatever the meteorologists say, many of those present saw in the swirling clouds of dust the spirit of lost souls.

The thousands of people who lost husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends or colleagues to fiery attacks were publicly clasped to the bosom of an America that fully shares their grief. And intends to avenge their loss

New York Post

In its editorial, the Daily News says the wind helped to dry the tears. It had come as a blessing and a tribute:

"What is good endures. As does New York. As does America. As do the souls of those who returned to us yesterday, whispering on the wind."

Pictures of people at Ground Zero, caught in the dust clouds, recalled the images of 11 September last year, as survivors stumbled away from the fallen towers.

Yesterday, many bereaved families gathered up handfuls of dust, a keepsake of the day they came to remember loved ones at the place where they died.

The New York Post devotes its front page to an image of President Bush and his wife, hand in hand, as they descended the ramp at Ground Zero, to meet the families.

On an inside page, there is another full page picture, one of the most poignant images from a day full of sadness.

In the middle of the empty crater where the towers once stood, a woman comforts a weeping girl, aged about 10.

Sharing grief

In its editorial, the paper says that the ceremonies yesterday struck the right note, and accorded the dead the honour they deserved.

Perhaps the most affecting gesture, it says, was the reading of the names of all the dead... names whose diverse origins proclaimed the nation's strength.

"On the whole, September 11, 2002, was a day of sad dignity," it concludes.

"The thousands of people who lost husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, friends or colleagues to fiery attacks were publicly clasped to the bosom of an America that fully shares their grief.

"And intends to avenge their loss."

There had been worries about the impact of the extended television coverage of the day's events. But most critics felt that broadcasters showed restraint in their use of images from last year.

And the New York Times said television commentators had known when to keep quiet:

"Just as they knew a year ago that they had to keep talking - to inform and reassure and simply make the events seem real - for a while yesterday they knew when not to say a word and became eloquent in their silence."

Almost all the papers and TV stations report a strange coincidence on the first anniversary of 11 September.

Yesterday, the winning numbers in the New York Lottery were 9-1-1.