At first, it was a random tinkling sound. Small hand bells, provided by the Salvation Army, were ringing on the Christian Science Plaza in response to a call from the City of Boston for bells to peal for 11 minutes on September 11, 2002.
Some in the crowd had brought their own bells, which added their own tones to the event. The people were young and old, black, yellow, and white. They included students, construction workers, babies in carriages, journalists, security staff, teachers—the many different people who make up Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.
And the common element was a willingness to commemorate the events of September 11 and the promise that this one would be different. As the bells rang, tears came to the eyes of some men and women, but the bells rang on.
