Mayor David Tiffin speaks to those gathered to commemorate Sept. 11.

By Alison James

alison.james@fct.wpengine.com

In the morning hours of Sept. 11, downtown Red Bay was already a hopping place. Cars whizzed by on Fourth Avenue, businesses welcomed customers, and it seemed like any other day.

But as bright sunlight filtered through the lattice work on the gazebo in Bay Tree Park, a few Red Bay residents gathered to remember what had been anything but “any other day” 14 years ago in this nation.

A small but dedicated group has met every year to pray and remember the day the towers fell in New York City, and this year was no different. Mayor David Tiffin, a few city councilmembers, ministers and other community members began the morning with the Pledge of Allegiance to a fluttering half-staff flag before multiple prayers and a quiet sharing of their memories from Sept. 11, 2001.

“It’s a day we certainly don’t need to forget, as a nation,” Tiffin said. “There’s evil in the world – absolutely, all over the place … Sometimes evil has a pretty big hand it can dish out, and that was a big hand it dished out that day. We don’t need to forget that.”