At a Memorial Ceremony, Loss and Tension

By ANDY NEWMAN

Family members of the 9/11 victims at the reflecting pool during the ceremony of ninth anniversary of 9/11.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Family members of the 9/11 victims at the reflecting pool during the ceremony of ninth anniversary of 9/11.

Updated, 9:58 a.m. | Thousands of relatives of the 9/11 dead gathered in a park near ground zero on Saturday morning for the ninth annual reading of their names as a nation debated whether a mosque and Islamic community center should be built near ground zero and a president pleaded for religious tolerance.

They filled a makeshift plaza in Zuccotti Park, beside a construction site sprouting cranes and American flags where 4 World Trade Center is rising, carrying cups of coffee and bouquets of flowers, wearing the sweatshirts and T-shirts and ball caps of the Port Authority police and the New York State emergency medical technicians and the New York Fire Department and many other agencies.

And on another crystal-clear September morn, a few degrees cooler than the one engraved on a city’s heart, they held aloft posters and photos of the departed whose captions told the story of that day and of this one.

Angel Luis Jarbe Jr.: “Always in our hearts.” Lt. Philip S. Petti, FDNY: “Remembering.”

James V. DeBlase Jr.: “Where are OUR rights?” Joon Koo Kang: “We love you!! Islam mosque ‘right next to ground zero??? We should stop this!!”

From the stage, however, the ceremony kept strictly to remembrance and steered clear of politics.

“No other public tragedy has cut our city so deeply,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said moments before a bell rang at 8:47 to signify the moment the first plane hit the first tower.

“No other place is as filled with our compassion, our love and our solidarity,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “It is with the strength of these emotions, as well as the concrete, glass and steel that is brought in day by day, that we will build on the footprints of the past the foundation of the future.”

Nearby, roses were placed in a circular reflecting pool to honor each of the dead.

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