It's been two years since the horrific events of Sept. 11, but many of the victims' families have yet to receive their loved ones' remains.
Unfortunately, most never will — which is why many Massachusetts victims' families say that a permanent memorial of the terrorist attacks is needed in this state.
Thanks to the efforts of Boston attorney Roderick MacLeish and others, that goal is starting to take shape — a horseshoe shape, to be exact.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the memorial that will bear the names of all 197 Massachusetts victims of the tragedy along its curved wall took place last week at Boston's Public Garden.
MacLeish, as president of the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund — the charity he founded to give financial support to the family members in Massachusetts who lost loved ones in the attacks — presided over the ceremony, which featured more than 400 family members of victims and a "who's who" of Massachusetts politics.
Included among the well-intentioned politicos were Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, presidential hopeful Sen. John F. Kerry, U.S. Rep. Martin T. Meehan, Gov. Mitt Romney, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and a handful of state legislators.
But MacLeish and other board members of the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund say that the VIPs of the event were the family members who lost their spouses, parents, children or domestic partners in the Sept. 11 tragedy.
MacLeish, with the help of major corporations like Stop and Shop and others, including his firm of Greenberg Traurig, has worked tirelessly over the past two years to raise more than $3 million for family members to help them out financially and emotionally.
But now, he says, they are looking for donors who want to contribute specifically to the creation of the memorial, and he's hoping to see more participation from large law firms which, to date, have not been as involved as he had hoped.
He estimates that the fund needs an additional $400,000 to start building the memorial, and he hopes to be able to tell the victims' families by January that construction is under way.
Some of the funding will be provided through Massachusetts license plate sales, as 25 percent of the money raised from special "U.S."-inscribed plates has been earmarked by statute for construction of the memorial. Fifty percent of the sales will go to the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund to help the families directly.
Given his high-profile battle with the Catholic Church as the attorney for dozens of alleged priest-abuse victims, it's a wonder MacLeish has had time to devote to the fund.
But MacLeish says he spent at least 800 hours on the 9/11 Fund last year, and calls his work for the charity "the best thing I've ever done as a lawyer."
He plans to step down as president in December, but says that other fund members are trying to convince him to stay until next June.
Anyone interested in making a donation to the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund should visit www.massfund.org, or call (617) 310-6061.
September 22, 2003
