Hawai'i reflects on how day changed our world
By Mike Gordon and Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writers
In the hot, still Hawai'i morning, 5,000 miles from Ground Zero in New York City, Trish Kline listened to guitars and voices raised in a hymn for peace, and remembered the high school boyfriend who died in the World Trade Center.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
As the 24-year-old Chaminade University junior joined a somber gathering of about 800 Saint Louis High and Chaminade students and faculty on the great lawn, the pain returned. "I lost somebody," she said, her voice quavering. "The memory is powerful."
John Niebuhr of Kailua places a lei at the city's 9-11 memorial at Honolulu Hale in honor of his cousin, Diane Lipari.
Kline had tearful moments yesterday, thinking back to the days when she met Johann Svenson, a Swede studying international business at the American School of Luxembourg in Europe. They dated briefly and stayed good friends, but had lost touch.
Only later did she learn that the first steps in his career had taken him to a job at the World Trade Center. And then to his death.
All across Hawai'i yesterday, the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks, the memories came as residents honored those who died. The effects of that day have changed forever the way many see their lives.
"I'm just more cautious now who's sitting next to me," said 18-year-old Marlena Barbero, a Chaminade freshman who grew up on Mau'i and had never heard of the twin towers before the day they toppled.
"You have to be more careful," she said.
At the Honolulu Hale memorial to those who died, Kailua's John Niebuhr carefully laid a puakenikeni lei in memory of his cousin, Diane T. Lipari, who died as the first tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. She was a senior vice president with investment firm Carr Futures.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
"If anything, it's made me more aware of how good we do have it in this country," he said.
Lipari worked at investment firm Carr Futures, and was among the thousands who died in the attack on the World Trade Center.
On Waikiki Beach, contestants in the Mrs. America Pageant sent a flock of 51 white doves into the air, while across town at Hickam Air Force Base, Gov. Linda Lingle told 150 people gathered for the Joint Venture Education Forum that she had felt anxiety in the days leading up to the anniversary.
"This is a very difficult day, really, for me," Lingle said. "I have to be candid with you. I'm sort of pushing through the day as many of you are, because no matter how hard you try ... you probably shouldn't really forget what happened on 9-11, but move on with our lives, as President Bush advised us to, even in the days immediately following."
Earlier, she took to the airwaves for a 30-second remembrance on TV and radio stations. She asked the public to observe a moment of silence.
No matter where people gathered, the memory of the horrific events of two years ago challenged all to move on with life in a way that honored the dead.
At the state Capitol, Senate President Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa) waited for a bell-ringing ceremony to mark the moment when the first hijacked airliner slammed into the World Trade Center.
"Eventually, throughout the day, each person will somehow remember what happened," said Bunda. "Unfortunately, I guess today is no different than any other day. Business goes on. But we must never forget what happened."
A moment of silence competed with the sounds of life.
Four loud rings of the state Capitol Liberty Bell — to mark each of the terrorist attacks — faded at 8:46 a.m. into the din of Beretania Street traffic.
Four tugs by state Senate Sergeant at Arms Ben Villaflor, his boxer's hands gripping the bell's white braided rope, as 100 people watched.
Before they went back to their offices, the Capitol crowd sang "America the Beautiful." As she sang, Susan Jaworowski's clear voice seemed to float above the rest.
"I think, for our generation, this is a new day that will live in infamy," she said afterward, her jaw quivering with emotion. "It is important to not only remember those who perished, but to tell the survivors that they are not forgotten."
For the gathering at the Chaminade and Saint Louis campus, a low, long drum roll filled the silence as uniformed cadets from the Saint Louis JROTC lowered the U.S. flag to half-staff.
The Rev. Ken Templin, director of the Chaminade University Campus Ministry, told the gathering "the world longs for peace."
His was a moving prayer.
"Peace comes when we together make it happen," Templin said.
Students bowed their heads as Cathy Agor spoke. Hers was a grim acceptance of a new world order, where uncertainty is a fact of life.
"The world as we knew it has changed," said Agor, also a member of the campus ministry. "Violence has escalated and our passion for justice is being tested."
Chaminade freshman Maimoa Fineisaloi, 17, has discovered her sense of trust also being tested.
"I didn't think that would happen to us — big strong America," she said. "Now we always have to go through security. We can't trust people."
Twenty-year-old junior Amor Del Rosario-Moore agreed.
"This day totally changed the outlook of the U.S. and our idea of national security," she said. In a way, our sheltered existence has ended, she said, and Americans have joined the rest of the world in seeing danger and uncertainty as a daily potential.
"It's time for us to open up and see the world through the eyes of all of those other people out there," she said. "The U.S. is so sheltered from everything happening. Everything is not fine and dandy. And now we know."
Advertiser staff writer Lynda Arakawa contributed to this report.
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012. Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
