Showing respect, mourning moving on

A city fire captain also encouraged the crowd to heed the program title, 'We Go On.'
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Five-year-old Anna Robison remembers the day there was fire in the television.
Marquita Robertson, 19, isn't sure she ever wants to leave Warren, believing its relative obscurity makes it safe.
The two were among the more than 100 people who attended the noon service of remembrance and hope at Courthouse Square dubbed "We Go On ..."
Anna accompanied her mother, Margaret, and her two brothers, Gregg, 10, and Keith, 8, all of Warren.
"We talked to them about it a lot over the last year and we wanted them to remember this, too," Margaret Robison said. "It's part of school, too."
She home-schools her three children.
The children say they remember the day they watched planes crashing into buildings on television. The children were getting ready to go with their father to pick their mother up at the hospital. She had broken her arm in a bicycle accident.
Gregg was looking forward to Wednesday's service. "It means a lot," he said.
Anna recalls the terrorist attacks as the time she saw fire in the TV.
Spoke at service
City officials and police and fire personnel, area clergy and military officials spoke at the service presented by the Warren Area Clergy Association, American Red Cross of Trumbull County and the city police and fire departments.
Police officer Brian Crites performed "Amazing Grace" and taps on the bagpipes and the 910th Airlift Wing Honor Guard performed the posting and retiring of the colors.
Fire Capt. Orneil Heller, one of the speakers, said that after the attacks U.S. citizens "sent a message to the world that we are the United States of America."
That drew applause from the crowd.
He urged attendees to heed the service title and go on.
"As we mourn, we go on," Heller said.
People should go on rebuilding, go on remembering the fallen and go on fighting terrorism, he said.
Trying to go on
That's what some who attended the service say they are trying to do.
Robertson, a student at YouthBuild, attended with others from the organization, which provides mentoring and other services for at-risk young adults.
"We wanted to show our respect for the victims of Sept. 11," said Monieka Robertson, 20, YouthBuild's graduate resource coordinator and Marquita's sister. Both are from Warren
Monieka has never flown on a plane before and the attacks of Sept. 11 make her afraid to try it.
Her sister isn't sure she wants to travel at all.
"It makes me not want to leave Warren," Marquita said. "It seems like no one knows about little Warren and that makes it a safe place."
Cynthia Parker, 25, YouthBuild's alumni coordinator, still wonders "why?" when she thinks about the terrorist attacks. But she points out something good did come out of it.
"I feel like it brought everyone together," said Parker, of Warren.
dick@vindy.com