The September 11th attack
Prayer, patriotism fill State Capitol

By Kevin Dayton and Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau

After days of aching privately for the victims in New York and Washington, people in Honolulu needed to do more. More than 3,000 of them pressed together at the State Capitol yesterday to pray, sing and embrace.

The State Capitol atrium was filled with the people of Hawai'i yesterday, their faces reflecting the somber mood in a day of prayer and remembrance for victims of Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Slawson and her friends couldn't find American flags for sale, so they printed glossy computer images of flags and inked the words "Proud to be American" on the back.

They held them up for the television cameras. They wanted the world to know.

Nurses and tourists mingled with janitorial crews, students and downtown executives. They heard prayers and poetry of the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and Muslim faiths. Many wept, dabbing at their eyes with paper napkins or bandannas.

People wore flags on their hats, flags draped around their shoulders and flags tied around their necks. They had miniature flags on sticks poking out of their pockets.

Stephen Koopman, an employee with Consumer Credit Counseling, held a paper with a picture of the former New York skyline with the intact World Trade Center towers. The bottom of the paper read: "Never forget. Never surrender."

He held the paper close to him with his left hand and covered his heart with his right as he joined the crowd in singing "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"I love my country and I came here today to mourn the loss of my fellow countrymen," Koopman said.

Some said they wanted to pay respect to the victims and show support for their country. Others simply felt a need to do something — anything — to mourn and acknowledge what has happened.

"Just to feel like you're a part of something," said 27-year-old Seattle resident Melinda Kays, who was here visiting her parents when the attack occurred. "There's so much space between here and where the tragedy happened, but it all affects us.

"We can't do anything, so we just thought ... hearing the national anthem being sung, paying our respects ... " her voice trailed off as she gently pushed her 2-year-old son's stroller back and forth. "You just didn't think anything like this could happen in our life."

Andrea A'ana, 36, came from her home at Moanalua Gardens with her sister, two nephews and her father to join in the mourning and pay tribute to the families who lost loved ones.

She had been watching hour after hour of grim television coverage of the attacks and thinking about the lost New York firefighters and the children who lost parents. She also had been thinking about her 4-week-old son, and the kind of world he was born into.

"We are waiting for some kind of retaliation, and I think America ... it hasn't been so much where we have to pray because we don't want war. I think everybody just knows it's something that we have to do," she said.

With his voice breaking, Mormon Senior Bishop Merlin Waite told the crowd that the dead are in a better place.

"It's those that remain — husbands, wives, children — these are the ones that we truly mourn for today, and we have come here today to gain strength, to move forward now and do what we can to alleviate their suffering. ... We need to reach out.

"We must not let ourselves sink into anger or bitterness or even hatred, for those emotions are against all that the Christian world and the Muslim world stand for, and of course many of the other worlds of religious faith."

Diamond Head resident Rea Fox said she was moved by the number of people who dropped what they were doing to come to the Capitol to pray.

"I know everyone has a different reason for being here, I'm sure," she said. "I came because I want to be where people are, stay in prayer that we keep our wits about us and remember that violence begets violence begets violence ... I pray for peace."