Blog Posts by Jess Wisloski

  • Poems help Americans reflect and move forward

    By Jess Wisloski | The Upshot – Sun, Sep 11, 2011

    It's the first September 11  commemoration that New York City has held at its completed, 16-acre memorial site.

    Amid the disorder left on the city by its most recent terror threat -- and the ensuing police response of closed roads, check points, and bag searches -- hundreds of thousands turned to peace and reflection in the ceremonies at the site of the World Trade Center attacks.

    Over the years, poems and songs have helped the U.S. grieve, heal and move past the most difficult of times. At Sunday's ceremony, and in past memorial services for September 11, these pieces of deeply meaningful prose took center stage.

    Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his wife Judith Nathan pay their respects at the WTC reflection pool, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

    Rudy Giuliani, who was in the final months of mayoralty in New York City when the twin towers were struck, read an excerpt from the King James version of the Bible -- Ecclesiastes 3:1 -- also popularized in a song adapted by Pete Seeger in 1962, called "Turn, Turn Turn,":

    To every thing there is a season,
    and a time to every purpose under the heaven
    A time to be born, and a

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  • Peter Negron 10 years later: ‘I miss you so much, Dad’

    By Jess Wisloski | The Upshot – Sun, Sep 11, 2011

    When Peter Negron's father, a Port Authority project manager, died in his office at the World Trade Center, the boy was only 11.

    Immediately after the attacks, he was one of more than a thousand children left suddenly without a parent. His dad, Pete Negron, 34, worked on the 88th floor of WTC 1 on environmental issues. Living in Bergenfield, N.J., with his mother Leila, and 2-year-old brother, he spent that first Father's Day of 2002 angry.

    "I don't want to talk to nobody, see nobody, do nothing," he told a news reporter then. "I just want to go to the cemetery and say that I love him..."

    Two years later, the thin 13-year-old stood in a dark suit, steeped with grief, to shakily read a poem in front of the whole nation. It was "Stars," written by children's author Deborah Chandra:

    "I like the way they looked down from the sky / And didn't seem to mind the way I cried / And didn't say, 'Now wipe away those tears,' / Or, 'Tell us, tell us what's the matter here!' / But shining through the

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  • Obama, Bush join together for a first at 9/11 ceremony

    By Jess Wisloski | The Upshot – Sun, Sep 11, 2011
    President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush visit North Memorial Pond at the National Sept. 11th Memorial Sunday, Sept., 11, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush visit North Memorial Pond at the National Sept. 11th Memorial Sunday, Sept., 11, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

    President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush arrive at the National September 11 Memorial, Sept. 11, 2011 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

    [Photos: Memorable moments from the Ground Zero memorial ceremony ]

    It was poignant, solemn, and a first for them both: President Barack Obama and former President George Bush, side-by-side, at site of the former World Trade Center towers.

    Last spring, just days after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces, Obama flew to New York City for a few moments at Ground Zero, to honor those who had fallen in the terrorist attacks.

    But when he extended an invitation to former President George W. Bush, the invite was declined.

    On Sunday, the two stood quietly in front of the bronze parapets that surround the giant reflecting pools, which stand in the exact footprints of the former twin towers.

    First Lady Michelle Obama stood by the president's side, and Laura Bush stood next to the former president.

    On May 5, when he visited the site, Obama noted, "It didn't matter who was in charge, we were going to make sure that the perpetrators of that horrible act -- that they received justice."

    At the

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