The Northland Heroes Tribute Committee and the city of Duluth will mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with a call to stand together peacefully despite our differences and to
reject violence, hate and divisiveness.
"This is a time to promote healing; to have a dialog of different cultures and diversities and acceptance of everyone in our community," said committee member Verne Wagner.
This is the committee's third annual observance of the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks that took nearly 3,000 lives. The event commemorates the victims of the attacks, as well as honoring members of the military, police, firefighters, EMTs, Community Watch volunteers and others who protect the community.
Past observances included activities such as a run/walk, softball tournament and a ceremony at Wade Stadium. This year's event is limited to an hourlong observance at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.
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"This being the 10th anniversary, we wanted to do something different,"
Wagner said.
Discussions with Mayor Don Ness led to the idea of promoting healing and understanding by having speakers from different cultural and faith groups. The city released details of the event Monday.
"What we will basically talk about is the fact that our cultures and religious beliefs may be different, but we live with each other," Wagner said. "It's important to understand who we are and that we are really not very different from each other."
Members of the area's Christian, Jewish, Islamic and freethinker communities have been invited to take part in the event.
"We share in the grief of this tragedy," said Nik R. Hassan, secretary of the Islamic Center of the Twin Ports, which plans on having a speaker at the event. "We join with the rest of the community in terms of healing and in terms of finding solutions to the problems all of us are facing in terms of terrorism, in terms of extremist views."
First United Methodist Church Pastor David Bard is slated to be one of the event's speakers. He said the theme -- working together as a community despite our differences -- is important.
"There is something that is deeply Christian about finding ways to work with people with whom we disagree," he said.
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"I don't see a great deal of religious conflict in the Duluth area, but there are some national and international trends which seek to drive wedges between people of different faiths," Bard said. "A message of hope and moving forward together is always worth emphasizing."
