VOA慢速英語:911紀(jì)念館在世貿(mào)大廈遺址正式開幕

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It has been more than 12 years since terrorists attacked the World TradeCenter in New York City. The grounds where the trade center’s North andSouth Towers once stood are now called Ground Zero. Last Thursday,Ground Zero was a place of sorrow and closure, celebration and silence. Anestimated 700 people went there to attend the opening of the NationalSeptember 11 Memorial Museum.

An atmosphere of shared mourning and public satisfaction filled a largeunderground room at the start of the hour-long ceremony. The crowd listenedas the Young People’s Chorus of New York City performed “The StarSpangled Banner”.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the chairman of the memorialmuseum.

“This museum, built on the site of rubble and ruins, is now filled with the faces, the stories and the memories of our common grief and our common hope. It is a witness to tragedy. It is an affirmation of human life. It’s a reminder to us and to all future generations that freedom carries heavy responsibilities, and it is reflection of our belief that the true hope of humanity resides in ourcompassion and our kindness for one another.”

Another speaker at the ceremony was President Barack Obama. He spoke of the museum and its pictures, oral history recordings, pieces of wreckage andother objects. He says they combine to tell the human stories of theSeptember 11th attacks.

Very personal objects bring the tragedy home to visitors. One example is abroken watch. Its hands stopped when a hijacked airplane hit the building.

A New York City firefighter looks at the last column recovered at the World Trade Center site at the dedication ceremony for the National 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York, May 15, 2014.

The collection also includes the shoes Florence Jones was wearing that day. She had walked down to safety from the World Trade Center’s 75th floor. Shethen walked another 50 city blocks to a friend’s office. When she heard thatmuseum officials were looking for donations, she remembered her ruinedshoes.

“I had put them in a plastic container, and when I took them out, they still had the smell on them from that awful day. And I knew I would never wear themagain. So I decided to donate them here. I wanted my nieces and my nephewand every person that asked what happened to see them and maybeunderstand a little bit better what it felt like to be ‘us’ on that day.”

These and other speeches made for an emotionally difficult ceremony. Manypeople seemed both touched and thankful when LaChanze went to the front of the room to sing. She was eight months pregnant with her second child whenher husband was killed in the 2001 attacks.

Near the end of the ceremony, Michael Bloomberg seemed to speak for manyof those in attendance. He noted that, “There are hard lessons to be learned, but also shafts of light that can illuminate the days ahead.”

I’m June Simms.