A flag that survived the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and has since traveled the country as a symbol of hope flew over Tucson this morning.
It helped mark the six-month anniversary of the January 8 shooting rampage that claimed 6 lives and injured 13 others. Firefighters from Tucson's Northwest Fire Department helped the Fire Department of the City of New York unfold and raise the flag over the Safeway supermarket parking lot where the violence took place. A small crowd gathered there for a moment of silence; the community continued its remembrance later in the day at Centennial Hall on the University of Arizona campus.
The flag once flew near the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York, where it sustained heavy damage from falling debris during the 9/11 attacks. It was then removed and stored until 2008, when the New York Says Thank You Foundation took it to a tornado-stricken Kansas town. While Foundation volunteers helped rebuild the town, townspeople stitched the flag back together.
The flag has since been stitched by schoolchildren who survived the Ft. Hood shooting, World War II veterans who were on the deck of the USS Missouri during the Pearl Harbor attack, and countless other survivors of disaster. It was last in Tucson when it was raised outside the funeral service for Christina-Taylor Green, a nine-year-old victim of the Tucson shooting born on 9/11.
AZPM joined the Tucson community at both events. Click to watch the video:
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