| RUTHERFORD
Mayor McPherson’s Comments at Community Service
I would like to thank Reverend Ray Frazier and other members of the Rutherford Interfaith Council for organizing the Community Prayer Service “Unity in the Park” on Tuesday, September 19, 2001. Clearly we are so fortunate in Rutherford to hone a religious community that so kindly ministers to our needs. We need to be united as a community. That need arose on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
The terrorist attack that took place in the World Trade Center last week has changed our world forever. “Many of residents of Rutherford worked in the Twin Towers. Mercifully many returned home safely to us that day. Information available at this time show two residents, John Crowe and Police Officer Maurice Barry of the Port Authority Police Department, and four former residents, Tim Finnerty, John Griffin, Paul Laszczynski and Ronnie Breitweiser, among those missing. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families as we gather together united in community. And we are united in community. I know because I have seen it. The outpouring of care of concern in the hours after the tragedy was overwhelming.
The Rutherford Police Department activated their specially trained officers to the Bergen County Rapid Deployment Force. They were utilized in strategic locations throughout the area. An urgent call for help came from the Port Authority Police Department. I am proud to say more officers than we could send volunteered to respond. Those Officers sent escorted the transport of medical supplies into New York City from a staging area in the Meadowlands. Those same officers later assisted the FBI and the East Rutherford Police Department in an incident involving a suspicious van near Route 3, which required the highway to be closed for eight hours.
To those residents most affected by the tragedy the Rutherford Police Department was made available to transport family members in and out of the city in efforts to find their loved ones. All of these duties were carried out with a great deal of courage, compassion and sensitivity.
The Rutherford Ambulance Corps responded to the staging area at Liberty State Park and provided emergency medical services to victims of the tragedy. Other members stood by at the Ambulance Corps Headquarters prepared to provide relief. All of these duties were performed without regard for their personal safety.
That morning all available members of the Rutherford Fire Department responded to quarters. They checked their equipment and loaded extra supplies onto the apparatus to ensure that all was in readiness for any mutual aid emergency response. Rutherford Firefighters were called upon to collect and fill all available air bottles from surrounding communities with the Borough's Special Services Unit. Monday the Rescue was deployed with Rutherford firefighters to Staten Island. They were given the grim task of opening up vehicles that had been towed from the crash site to aid the FBI. They returned to that task today. All of these tasks were performed unselfishly and with a dedication to duty that exemplifies the Rutherford Fire Department.
Our employees in the Clerk's Office updated our web-site and community bulletin board with all available information on blood donation and collections for the victims. So many residents contacted me in the hours and the days after the tragedy wanting to know what they could do, how they could help. A drive was organized for emergency service relief by Rev. Dennis O’Neill. More than 200 volunteers served and I am told over $4,000 was raised for the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Fliers to publicize it were distributed by the Rutherford Junior Football League and the Elks Club.
So I know we are united in community and I know we will remain so. We will remain so as long as we light the candles and continue to show care and concern for each other and the victims and the survivors of this terrible tragedy. We will remain so as long as we display the flag and display the principles behind it, that recognize, although our grief and anger are undiminished, individuals and not a particular ethnic group perpetrated this horror upon us. As we gather in Lincoln Park let me quote President Lincoln in his first inaugural address. “Let us display the better angel of our nature.”
I know we will remain united in community because you, the people of Rutherford, are “the better angels of our nature.” I cannot tell you how proud I am to be your Mayor, God Bless Rutherford, God Bless America.
176 PARK AVENUE RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY 07070
Telephone: (201) 460-3022 --- Fax: (201) 460-3003
Dated: September 21, 2001
Contact: Mayor Bernadette McPherson (460-3022)
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