9/11 Remembered with 3,000 Flags

Flags have been up all weekend on the lawn in front of the Walker Building to inspire, remind and prompt education on the 11th anniversary of September 11.

"I think it is a defining moment for my generation and a lot of the younger generations," said City Councilor Robert Seymour who equated the attacks of September 11 to the attacks of Pearl Harbor on December 7. "I think this is the equivalent, if not even greater considering that terrorism came home and war was brought to us ... we need to make sure we are remembering it every single year."

The flags were carefully placed by volunteers on Friday in time for rush hour and a weekend of rememberance, he said.

"We have had people there coming and going all weekend," said Seymour. "We have had people going out paying their respects, taking pictures and certainly as an educational opportunity for their children."

In addition to the memorial, which will be in place until 6 p.m. today, the event “3011 Reps of Remembrance” was held on Sunday. Thirty people came together in five teams to flip a large tractor tire throught a three mile course. Each team completed 3,011 repetitions of exercise in the process; once for each person that was killed in the attacks and for the date of the attacks.

"It cuts deep and we need to make sure we remember it every single year," said Seymour.

Many of those taking part in the event had ties to law enforcement. Fire fighters from Marlborough, Natick and Weymouth participated.

"I know for those guys they have a very personal connection to 9/11," said Seymour.

The event and the flags all come back to remembering the event and passing on the knowledge to future generations, he said.

"My daughter went up on her own and she was fixing flags. She is in the seventh grade and she gets it," said Seymour. "That lesson alone right there is what it's all about."